‘I Thought She Was An Intruder!’

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP)  A Black woman whose fatal shooting by a US homeowner has prompted claims of racial profiling was shot in the face, a post-mortem examination found.
Renisha McBride, 19, received fatal injuries on the front porch of a home in Detroit, Michigan, on November 2.
Her family says she was disoriented and looking for help after having just been involved in a car crash nearby.
The homeowner said he had feared a burglary, but civil rights leaders are demanding justice.
Prosecutors say they are reviewing whether to charge the unidentified 54-year-old, who told police he fired his shotgun accidentally.
Stand your ground law
A lawyer for the man said he was “torn up” by McBride’s death, but that he had feared for his life at the time.
Michigan is one of several U.S. states with a so-called stand your ground law, which allows the use of deadly force if a person feels their life is in danger, though it is unclear whether that will be argued in this case.
A post-mortem examination report released on Monday confirmed that McBride had been shot in the face, but not at close range.
Demonstrators rallied last week outside a local police station to protest over McBride’s killing. The Wayne County medical examiner’s office report has ruled her death a homicide.
She was shot as she stood on the porch in the predominantly white Dearborn Heights area shortly before 4.
The Detroit Free Press reported that a car registered to McBride’s family had been involved in a collision with a parked vehicle just over two hours before the shooting, a few streets away.
It is unclear what happened in the intervening time. McBride’s relatives have called for a thorough investigation into the shooting.
“It’s hard to… believe it’s an accident when a gun is in her face and the trigger is pulled,” family lawyer Gerald Thurswell told the Detroit News on Friday.
The case has attracted the attention of civil rights leader the Reverend Al Sharpton, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Michigan congressman John Conyers.
On Saturday, about 200 people showed up at a rally organized by Mr. Sharpton’s National Action Network.

By Hazel Trice Edney
(TriceEdneyWire.com)

The chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a federation of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers, says the Washington Redskins’ team – under fire from a Richmond, Va. publisher – is in sync with the entire National Football League in its apparent oppressive treatment of Black businesses and consumers.
“It’s almost a slave mentality. They put us on the field and we entertain the master but we’re not reaping any benefits from the business side of it,” Campbell says. “It’s not just the Redskins. If you look around the country, the NFL as a whole pretty much neglects Black businesses and the Black community,” said Campbell, publisher of the Arizona Informant Newspaper.
He continued, “Here in Arizona, our Arizona Cardinals does zero with the Black community. Every now and then they might show up for a token Black event. But, I don’t see our African-American newspaper here in Phoenix or in Arizona being supported by the Arizona Cardinals. I believe if you called other newspapers that have [teams] in their markets, I don’t believe they’re doing much for them either. I believe the NFL as a whole takes the Black community for granted although we are their major product on the field.”
Campbell was responding to questions pertaining to a conflict between NNPA member Ray Boone, editor/publisher of the award-winning Richmond Free Press, and the Richmond-based Washington Redskins Training Camp, which is partially owned by Bon Secours Health System.
In a letter to NAACP Chairman Roslyn Brock and CC’d to Campbell, Boone states that the team contracted no business with Black-owned or locally owned businesses at its first Richmond training camp between July 25 and August 16. That includes the failure to advertise in the Black-owned Richmond Free Press while advertising with the white-owned conservative daily, the Richmond Times Dispatch which has a history of pro-segregation leadership. The conflict is steeped in an age-old battle constantly waged by Black newspapers, which are historic targets for advertising discrimination.
While Bon Secours placed paid advertisements for the training camp in the Times Dispatch, the Free Press was sent press releases, Boone said in an interview.
Brock, who has served as NAACP chair since 2010, is vice president for advocacy and government relations for the Bon Secours Health System, Inc., in Marriottsville, Md. Boone believes her corporate position has caused her to compromise her stance for economic justice in the Richmond case.
“Bon Secours, along with Mayor Dwight C. Jones and the Washington team, blatantly denied, contrary to the Mayor’s pledge, Black businesses and other local businesses the opportunity to receive vendor contracts inside the training camp,” Boone wrote in a Sept. 27 letter to Brock. “Characteristic of Richmond government and big businesses, this Bon Secours decision disgracefully enhanced Richmond’s shameful reputation as ‘The Capital of Poverty,’ with 25 percent of Richmond’s population suffering in poverty.”
When Brock had not responded to his letter for more than a month, Boone followed up with a Nov. 1 email pointing out, “This raises the unavoidable question of whether Bon Secours is restricting you from living up to your responsibility to honor the NAACP mission?”
He continued, “In the interest of fairness and the image of the NAACP, I respectfully suggest that you break your silence.”
Brock responded to Boone by email that same day, stating, “The matter you reference in your letter is local in nature and should be handled directly by the Richmond Branch NAACP and Salim Khalfani at the Virginia State Conference NAACP. I have forwarded your correspondence to them and shared the information with the leadership of Bon Secours Health System in Richmond.”
In an email, responding to a question from the Trice Edney News Wire this week, Brock said that she had not publically commented on Boone’s complaint because it is a local issue.
Brock’s email said she had “also discussed the matter in detail with” Campbell, who is serving his second term as NNPA chairman. At a Sept. 17 reception in D.C., Campbell, Boone and other NNPA publishers praised Brock for her leadership and gave her an award for social justice.
While Campbell verbally blistered the NFL, including the Redskins, he balanced his response by saying he agrees with Brock that the issue in Boone’s case is local since the economic decisions appear to have been made by the mayor and Bon Secours’ Richmond entities.
“At the end of the day, I think [the criticism of her] is unfair just because she works for Bon Secours. That’s her day job. We all volunteer at some time with the NAACP,” Campbell says, referring to Brock’s volunteer chairmanship. “While we want to see Mr. Boone and his publication get what it deserves and more so; that is definitely a local issue.”
Boone, who recently announced he has stopped using the term “Redskins” in the Richmond Free Press because it is “racist”, argues that the Redskins’ and Bon Secours’ exclusion of Black businesses underscores and illustrates the team’s mentality under the controversial name, which is receiving growing national pressure for change.
In her email to the Trice Edney News Wire, Brock also clarified that the NAACP has long stood against the Redskins name because of its roots in racism. “The NAACP passed a resolution more than 10 years ago against racial slurs being used as mascots. In the last few months the NAACP signed on letters with the Oneida Tribe, based in Washington and the National Coalition on American Tribes especially in support of their efforts to change the Redskins name,” she wrote.
Neither Mayor Dwight C. Jones; nor Virginia NAACP President King Salim Khalfani could be reached for comment by deadline. Bon Secours representatives did not return repeated phone calls.
Meanwhile, Boone, a recipient of the State NAACP’s Oliver W. Hill Freedom Fighter Award, remains focused on his quest for economic justice, promising Brock “fairness and balance” in upcoming coverage of her leadership positions with the NAACP and Bon Secours.
Such economic battles have been hard fought in Richmond and in Black and grassroots communities across the nation. Former Richmond City Councilman Chuck Richardson, known for his historic advocacy for Black businesses and contractors, recalls researching Washington Redskins’ racism as far back as 1961. That’s when he wrote a research paper in junior high school about the team and how the Redskins was “the last professional football team to allow Blacks to play for them,” he said in an interview. “This harkens back to that painful time. It hurt then and I would have thought that a greater degree of change might have occurred, but the mentality still exists. It seems so much has changed and yet so much remains the same.”

Eatmon will work in Alabama and nationally to expand Afterschool

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Afterschool Alliance has announced that Erika Eatmon, Education Coordinator for the Birmingham Regional Empowerment and Development (BREAD) Center, has been selected to serve as a 2013-2014 Afterschool Ambassador. She is one of just 12 local leaders from across the country to be chosen for the honor this year. Each Afterschool Ambassador will continue directing or supporting a local afterschool program while also serving the one-year Afterschool Ambassador term organizing public events, communicating with policy makers, and building support for afterschool programs. Eatmon’s Ambassadorship is sponsored by Bright House Networks, as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to afterschool initiatives and to education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) topics.
“In Birmingham and all across the country, quality afterschool programs are doing a terrific job meeting the needs of students, families and communities,” said Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant. “Afterschool programs keep kids safe during the out of school time hours, help working families, and inspire students to learn by offering enriching activities like Tae Kwon Do, robotics and cooking clubs, as well as homework help, physical fitness, connections to mentors, and much more. As an Afterschool Ambassador, Erika will bring great energy to the work to build even stronger support for afterschool programs among parents, business and community leaders, lawmakers and others. We are profoundly grateful to Bright House Networks for supporting her ambassadorship and for its ongoing, generous support for the afterschool initiative. I look forward to working with Erika this year.”
Afterschool programs are under intense pressure.  The Afterschool Alliance’s 2012 Uncertain Times survey found that more than three in five afterschool programs (62 percent) reported that their funding is down “a little or a lot” from three years earlier. Even in communities where local economies and program funding are faring better, program leaders express significant concern about their financial outlook and their inability to reach all children who need afterschool programs.
“I am delighted to have this chance to help increase support for afterschool programs, which give students opportunities to explore their interests and give parents the security that comes with knowing that their children are safe and supervised, with engaging, educational activities after the school day ends,” Eatmon said. “Afterschool programs are critical to students’ success in school, to their safety, to working families, and to the nation’s workforce and its economy. We need to increase resources to afterschool programs and work toward the day when there is a program for every child who needs one.”
The BREAD Center provides afterschool and summer camp programs, adult education, and summer food service programs to more than 150 students and families in the Birmingham metro area. The afterschool program has operated as a 21st Century Community Learning Center site since 2003. BREAD offers homework help, STEM projects, gardening, recreation, nutrition, character education, and the arts. Erika Eatmon has been with BREAD since 2009.
Each Ambassador organized a major event for Lights On Afterschool, the Afterschool Alliance’s 14th annual national rally for afterschool, held on October 17 this year. Last year, 1 million people participated in some 9,000 Lights On Afterschool events across the United States and at U.S. military bases worldwide. Bright House Networks is sponsoring the Lights On Afterschool photo contest again this year, in which the public will vote for the winner on the Bright House Networks Facebook page and one program will win $2,000.
“We congratulate Erika and all of this year’s Afterschool Ambassadors,” said Reinaldo Llano, Bright House Corporate Director, Community Relations, and board member of the Afterschool Alliance. “We look forward to continuing to support the afterschool community and to helping students, teachers and families with resources that lead the way in engaged learning opportunities, specifically with the STEM education initiative.”

The other 2013-2014 Afterschool Ambassadors are:
·         Alaska, Juneau:  Terri Campbell;
·         Arkansas, Jonesboro: Rennell Woods, Executive Director, At-Risk American Male Education Network (AAMEN);
·         Colorado, Fort Collins: María Ortiz, 21st CCLC Grant Director, Poudre School District;
·         Kansas, Overland Park: Pamela Watkins, Vice President Youth Development Services, YMCA of Greater Kansas City;
·         Louisiana, New Orleans: Cyndi Nguyen, Director, Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training (VIET);
·         Maryland, Rockville: Elizabeth McGlynn, Executive Director, Girls on the Run of Montgomery County;
·         Nebraska, Omaha: Gwynette Williams, Program Director, Collective for Youth;
·         New York, Brooklyn: Omari McCleary, Program Director, Good Shepherd Services,
·         Texas, Fort Worth: Miguel Garcia, Director, Fort Worth After School; and
·         Washington, Cheney: Tammie Shaw.

One additional Afterschool Ambassador will be chosen and announced shortly.
Many more students across the country need access to afterschool programs. More than 15 million school-age children – more than one in four kids in the United States – are unsupervised after the school day ends. The parents of 18 million children say they would enroll their kids in afterschool programs – if programs were available.