The People’s Organization for Progress was set to host their annual protest to observe the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Tuesday, April 4. Organizers named their event the “March For Justice, Equality, and Peace.” Participants met at the new Martin Luther King Memorial Monument at 495 Martin Luther King Blvd. by the new Essex County Building.
The protest centered on police brutality, voting rights, world peace, housing justice, worker rights and living wage jobs, environmental justice, and more. Police brutality, especially in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, was especially spotlighted with the family survivors of a number of recent cases in the area participating prominently.
“We are marching on April 4 to draw attention to police brutality in New Jersey, as well as the rest of the nation,” said chairperson Lawrence Hamm. “We [marched] to demand justice for Najee Seabrooks, Bernard Placide Jr., Carl Dorsey, Major Gulia Dale III, the Rodwell/Spivey Brothers, and many other victims in this state and across the country.”
The King statue in front of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Building, near the corner of Springfield Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was surrounded by participants with hopes of drawing attention to the fact that the social, economic, and political issues that King confronted during his lifetime are still present today, and it is our duty to continue his fight.
Marchers demanded full implementation of the state’s Amistad Law, which requires teaching African American history in all public schools.
For more information about the People’s Organization for Progress, call 973-801-0001.
The far right wants to distort the recent horrific Nashville shooting into a story about violence and transgender people. We should strongly rebuff those efforts as a blatantly offensive sleight of hand that fundamentally ignores reality and seeks to undermine our collective humanity.
Last week, on Monday, March 27, our nation experienced another tragic mass shooting that senselessly took six lives at a covenant school in Nashville. Unfortunately, the right-wing disinformation machine has executed an all-too-familiar strategy of turning conversations regarding gun safety into an opportunity to perpetuate hatred toward marginalized groups. Channeling hate into a political strategy will only result in more gun-related deaths.
After unconfirmed reports that the perpetrator of the Nashville shooting identified as transgender, a flood of anti-transgender rhetoric began, with transphobic comments coming from across the spectrum. Across the conservative media spectrum, outlets went to pains to immediately brand the suspect as a “trans shooter.”
To give you a sense of the insanity, former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have both speculated that hormone therapy was driving the shooter’s apparent rage, despite there being no evidence that the shooter was on hormone therapy.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said the media was ignoring “a clear epidemic of trans or non-binary mass shooters,” although he presented nothing to support that claim.
The comments demonizing transgender people are perhaps the most cynical in a long line of distraction techniques to avoid the underlying discussion of America’s gun epidemic—the one that is happening regardless of the identity of the shooter.
But let’s remember that facts matter. There have been at least 130 mass shootings this year alone. The vast majority of mass shootings in the United States are perpetrated by cisgender men, and transgender people are dramatically more likely to be victims of violent crime, not perpetrators. Most concerning, incidents of violence against transgender people are on the rise across this country.
The attacks on transgender people are part of a much broader and insidious campaign. Since the beginning of the year, more than 400 anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide as part of a national strategy to enshrine discrimination into law. Much of the legislation focuses on restricting healthcare access, visibility in the education system, and freedom of public expression. Within the LGBTQ community, transgender people are the most vulnerable, which makes these attacks all the more heartbreaking. Transgender people are our siblings, our family.
As a Black man who is also gay, I have lived my life being seen as “other” to many. In my life, I have learned that my greatest power is my ability to stand up for others. In my roles in the private sector, government, and not-for-profit sectors and now as the president & CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum, I have always believed that we must rise above the shrill pitch of fear and embrace the “human” in our communities.
For some, it is all too easy to look past the demonization of transgender people, because they are not transgender. But we cannot allow that to happen. We must stand together against campaigns to erase any of us. Let’s not forget: When they come for “them” today, they will come for “us” tomorrow, using the same strategy of fear and distortion.
Far too often, Black people face microaggressions and dog-whistle politics. We know the coded language, we know what it means, and we have always called it out. In today’s political environment, the dog whistle is a bullhorn of explicit bigotry.
We deserve better: a national conversation about gun policy driven by facts, not fear, and more empathy for the transgender community, who are a part of our collective human community. The vast majority of Americans want action, not more demonization. Let’s stand up for better. Alphonso David is president & CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. He previously served as chief counsel to the governor of New York and as an adjunct professor of law at the Fordham University Law School and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Harlem Bespoke: An original article on the blog from over a decade ago takes a look at one of the hidden architectural clues of Harlem’s forgotten Jewish past. We probably covered most of the major former temples to be found uptown over the years but some time has since past and many of the new readers might not be familiar with the local lore.
The Moorish curves of the Baptist Church on 118th Street between Malcolm X/Lenox and 5th Avenue had us wondering what type of religious services one might have found inside during the early 1900’s. Turns out that No. 23-25 West 118th Street, in the upper photo, shows the original Star of David on the cupolas at the top. An offshoot of a downtown synagogue, Congregation Shaare Zedek (Gates of Righteousness) took root here in 1900. While this is a sign of the strong Jewish presence in the early years of Harlem, the stars did not last too long — since the uptown and downtown Shaare Zedek reunited on the Upper West Side, and the Canaan Baptist Church took over this space during World War One. Now, the Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ holds sway inside the grand, century-old institution. The apartment buildings on either side are still there, but the block across the street is a more recent elementary school construction. Take the 2,3 train to 116th Street to see the building as it currently stands. Archival image courtesy NYPL digital collection: LINK
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump conspired to illegally influence the 2016 election through a series of hush money payments designed to silence claims that he feared would be harmful to his candidacy, New York prosecutors said Tuesday in unsealing a historic 34-count felony indictment.
The charges arose from a series of checks that Trump or his company wrote during the presidential campaign to his lawyer and fixer for his role in making a payment to a porn actor who alleged an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
The payments were part of “an unlawful plan to identify and suppress negative information that could have undermined his campaign for president,” Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy said in court. They were made to “protect his candidacy,” Conroy added.
The arraignment in Manhattan, though largely procedural in nature, was nonetheless the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced a judge in his own criminal prosecution. The indictment amounts to a remarkable reckoning for Trump after years of investigations into his personal, business and political dealings, unfolding against the backdrop not only of his third campaign for the White House but also against other investigations in Washington and Atlanta that might yet produce even more charges.
Trump, stone-faced and silent as he entered and exited the Manhattan courtroom, said “not guilty” in a firm voice while facing a judge who warned him to refrain from rhetoric that could inflame or cause civil unrest. All told, the ever-verbose Trump, who for weeks before Tuesday’s arraignment had assailed the case against him as political persecution, uttered only about 10 words — though he did appear to glare for a period at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The next court date is December 4, though it is not clear if Trump will be required to appear.
The broad contours of the case have long been known, but the indictment contains new details about a scheme that prosecutors say began months into his presidential candidacy in 2015, as his celebrity past collided with his presidential ambitions. It centers on payoffs to two women, including porn star Stormy Daniels, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with him years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged the former president had out of of wedlock.
“It’s not just about one payment. It is 34 false statements and business records that were concealing criminal conduct,” Bragg told reporters, when asked how the three separate alleged payments were connected.
All 34 counts against Trump are linked to a series of checks that were written to Trump’s personal lawyer and problem-solver, Michael Cohen, to reimburse him for his role in paying off Daniels. Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded in various internal company documents as being for a legal retainer that prosecutors say didn’t exist. Cohen testified before the grand jury and is expected to be a star prosecution witness. Nine of those monthly checks were paid out of Trump’s personal accounts, but records related to them were maintained in the Trump Organization’s data system.
Prosecutors allege that the first instance of Trump directing hush money payments came in the fall of 2015, when a former Trump Tower doorman was trying to sell information about an alleged out-of-wedlock child fathered by Trump.
David Pecker, a Trump friend and the publisher of the National Enquirer, made a $30,000 payment to the doorman to acquire the exclusive rights to the story, pursuant to an agreement to protect Trump during his presidential campaign, according to the indictment. Pecker’s company later determined the doorman’s story was false, but at Cohen’s urging is alleged to have enforced the doorman’s confidentiality until after Election Day.
The investigation also concerns six-figure payments made to Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics. Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.
After his arraignment, Trump was returning to his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, for a primetime address to campaign supporters. At least 500 prominent supporters have been invited, with some of the most pro-Trump congressional Republicans expected to attend. A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
The day’s schedule, with its striking blend of legal and political calendar items, represents the new split-screen reality for Trump as he submits to the dour demands of the American criminal justice system while projecting an aura of defiance and victimhood at celebratory campaign events.
Wearing his signature dark suit and red tie, Trump turned and waved to crowds outside the building before heading inside to be fingerprinted and processed. He arrived at court in an eight-car motorcade from Trump Tower, communicating in real time his anger at the process.
“Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse,” he posted on his Truth Social platform. “Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!”
Afterward, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told reporters that it was a “sad day for the country.”
“You don’t expect this to happen to somebody who was president of the United States,” he said.
Trump, who was impeached twice by the U.S. House but was never convicted in the U.S. Senate, is the first former president to face criminal charges. The nation’s 45th commander in chief was escorted from Trump Tower to the courthouse by the Secret Service.
“He is strong and ready to go,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina told The Associated Press. Earlier, Tacopina said in a TV interview that the former president wouldn’t plead guilty to lesser charges, even if it might resolve the case. He also said he didn’t think the case would make it to a jury.
New York police said they were ready for large protests by Trump supporters, who share the Republican former president’s belief that the New York grand jury indictment and three additional pending investigations are politically motivated and intended to weaken his bid to retake the White House in 2024. Journalists often outnumbered protesters, though.
Trump, a former reality TV star, has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, saying he raised more than $8 million in the days since the indictment on claims of a “witch hunt.” His campaign released a fundraising request titled “My last email before arrest” and he has repeatedly assailed Bragg, egged on supporters to protest and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case “hates me” — something his own lawyer has said is not true.
The arraignment unfolded against the backdrop of heavy security in New York, coming more than two years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
The scenes around Trump Tower and the courthouse did not feature any major unrest. Police tried to keep apart protesters supporting the former president and those opposing him by confining them to separate sides of a park near the courthouse using metal barricades.
Tucker and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Jill Colvin, Bobby Caina Calvan, Larry Neumeister, Karen Matthews, Larry Fleisher, Deepti Hajela, Julie Walker, Ted Shaffrey, David R. Martin, Joe Frederick and Robert Bumsted in New York and Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of former President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.
The efficiency of any factory or production line is largely dependent on the conveyor systems used. These systems are responsible for the transportation of goods from one point of the production line, all the way to the end. From food processing to e-commerce, conveyor systems are being used in a variety of industries. In this blog…
In honor of National Public Health Week, Harlem-based WE ACT for Environmental Justice calls attention to the dangers of indoor air pollution. Homes that use gas stoves expose themselves to unsafe amounts of indoor air pollution. That matters, because Americans spend, on average, approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. As you may recall, Harlem-based WE ACT for…
In the spirit of Women’s History Month, I thought highlighting a few of the many Black female inventors would be a good idea.
Many inventions that we often take for granted were created by Black inventors. There was a time when the U.S. patent office would not recognize inventions created by Blacks, allowing whites to take credit for Black inventions. Women inventors not only had to deal with racism, but they also had to contend with male chauvinism.
Sarah Goode was the first African American female to receive a U.S. patent in 1885. Born into slavery, Goode and her husband moved to Chicago after the Civil War to open a furniture store. Many of her customers lived in very small apartments. Mrs. Good invented a folding cabinet bed, which could be converted into a cabinet desk when not in use. The invention was the forerunner of the Murphy and sofa bed.
Mariam Benjamin was the second African American female to receive a U.S. patent in 1888 for inventing the Gong and signal chair. This type of chair allowed hotel guests to push a button to request waiter service. The United States House of Representatives later adopted this invention. Benjamin’s design became a precursor to the signaling systems used by airlines that allow passengers to reach flight attendants for service.
Dr. Patricia Bath was the first African American woman to receive a patent for a medical purpose in 1988 for her invention, the Laserphaco Probe, a medical device that uses a laser to remove cataracts quickly and nearly without pain.
Marie Van Brittan invented the first close-circuit TV security system in 1969. Born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, Van Brittan and her husband Albert Brown, who worked as an electronics technician, installed the first home audio and video security system in their home at 151-58 135th Avenue Jamaica, New York.
Dr. Hadiyah Nicole Green, who lost an aunt and uncle to cancer, was motivated by these tragedies to become a distinguished physicist. Dr. Green’s groundbreaking research of using laser technology to insert nanoparticles to kill cancer cells has great promise.
Black female inventors and scientists continue to develop ways to improve the quality of life in our world while making history. Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett led the Vaccine Research Center’s {VRC} team that developed the COVID-19 Vaccine, and Dr. Gladys B. West, a major contributor to the development of the GPS directional system, are fine examples of hidden Black female figures in science.
Black female inventors are getting younger. At 7, Zora Bell became the youngest person to create a mobile app video game. The first grader from West Philadelphia presented her full version mobile game at the University of Pennsylvania’s Bootstrap Expo in 2012.
We are who we think we are. Never allow fear and doubt to keep you from being all that you can be.
We have just celebrated Black History Month, and I would like to call this annual February celebration African Awareness Month. We are now celebrating Women’s History Month, and in the spirit of this celebration, I would like to acknowledge four history-making female leaders of color in Higher Education.
Dr. Claudine Gay is the President-Elect of Harvard University. Dr. Gay will become the first Black president of the oldest Institution in America. Harvard was established in 1636 and will celebrate its 387th year when Dr. Gay becomes the 30th president and the second female to lead this prestigious Ivy League university. Dr. Gay is the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from Harvard.
Dr. Joyce Brown is the first Black and woman to be appointed president of New York’s Fashion Institution of Technology {FIT}. Dr. Brown was appointed president of the 79-year-old institution in 1998 and has provided leadership for the Institute for close to a quarter of a century.
Before taking over the helm at FIT, Dr. Brown served as vice chancellor for Student and Urban Affairs at CUNY. She was the acting president of Bernard Baruch College and Deputy Mayor for Public and Community Affairs in the Dinkins administration.
Rev. Dr. Lakeesha Warlord is the first Black woman to be appointed president of the New York Theological Seminary {NYTS}. Rev. Dr. Warlord came to NYTS from the First Corinthian Baptist Church, one of Harlem’s historic religious institutions serving that community for over 90 years. Dr. Warlord is a graduate of Spelman College. She received a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Warlord earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Nemat Minouche Shafik is the incoming President of Columbia University; she will become the university’s first woman and African-born president. The Egyptian-born economist will take over the leadership responsibility of the 268-year-old Harlem Institution for higher learning on July 1st. Dr. Shafik is a brilliant economist. She was the youngest person to serve as vice president of The World Bank. She also served as the deputy managing director for the International Monetary Fund.
Dr. Shafik graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from The University of Massachusetts-Amherst and earned a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University.
This coming Fall, six of the eight private Ivy League research universities will have female presidents: Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Pennsylvania, and Dartmouth.
There was a time in American history when women could not vote or attend Ivy League universities. Now, we have a Female Vice President of the United States and six female Ivy League university presidents. Hats off to the current and future women leaders in higher education and the world.
