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Bernal E. Smith II


Alternative Newspaper A Real Times Newspaper


The Mid-Southʼs Best


Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku Executive Editor


President / Publisher •


February 3 - 9, 2011 OPINION


Tri-State Defender


By the end of the CivilWar, roughly 179,000African-American men (10 percent of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and an- other 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 African-American sol- diers died over the course of the war – 30,000 of infection or disease. – Source: NationalArchives and RecordsAdministration. (Photo courtesy of TEWire/ African American CivilWarMuseum andMonument.)


‘Better to die fighting’


and the CivilWar – Part I A four-part Black History Month


series in recognition of the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of


the CivilWar


director of the African American Civ- il War Museum and Monument.)


By Dr. Frank Smith Jr. TriceEdneyWire.com (Dr. Frank Smith Jr. is executive


and South – the firing on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, was a cause for tribu- lation and anxiety. But, for free and enslaved Black Americans, the onset of the CivilWar was a cause for cel- ebration and a time for jubilee. The Northern press fretted over


For White America – both North Little known stories of blacks


years of fratrici- dal conflict for White America to arrive at the meaning of the war


Dr. Frank Smith Jr.


clear to Black America at its beginning – the reaffirmation of the founding uni- versal


principle


13th, 1861 heralded: “Better be a DEAD MAN, than a live slave! Bet- ter to die fighting, than to live to breed children for the shambles! Death slays only the body; the spirit, (disenthralled), will pass on, working out its immortal destiny. Rather say we, ‘Ten Reigns of Terror’ than one year of bondage! Better a thousand guillotines, than one fugitive re- turned. ‘Let the Union go to pieces, if the slaves go free.’” Black leaders faced the reality


whether the union could be saved. The Southern press railed on about the threat to the demise of the South’s “Peculiar Institutions” – slavery – while the Black Press rejoiced in headlines, such as, “The Coming Hour,” and declared for “Emancipa- tion or Extermination.” Yes, there were black newspapers during slav- ery since March 16, 1827. The Weekly Anglo-African, April


formed a CivilWar for reunion into a war for liberation. It would take five


and inevitability of the consequence of the coming sectional conflict with resolution, while white leaders were in denial of the union’s trans- formation and the certain demise in the preservation of slavery. Freder- ick Douglass editorialized in his Douglass Monthly on May, 1861, just one month after the start of the war: “God be praised! That it has come at last. We should have been glad if the North, of its own proper virtue, had given this quietis to doubt and vacillation. She (the Union), did not do it, and perhaps it is best that she (the Union), did not. What her negative wisdom with- held, has now come to us through the vengeance and rashness of slaveholders. Another instance of the wrath of man working out the purposes in praise of eternal good- ness!” Free and enslaved blacks trans-


er step in the drama of American progress. We say progress, for we know that no matter what may be the desires of the men of Expediency who rule, or seem to, the affairs of the North, the tendencies are for Liberty. God speed the conflict. The strife will be deadly, but the end is certain. It matters not whether the government is successful, whether the union is preserved, the ideas underlying the struggle will triumph.” –Weekly Anglo-African, April 20th, 1861.


Memorial lists the names of 209,145 Black union soldiers who joined President Lincoln to save the Union and keep it united under one flag. The monument, located at the corner of 10th and U Streets NW Washing- ton, D. C., was built by a private foundation that operates a museum. On July 18, the museum will host a Grand Opening for its newly reno- vated 5,000 sq. ft. space with new ex- hibits, artifacts, and state of the art educational programs adjacent to the monument.


is sponsored by The African Ameri- can Civil War Museum and Monu- ment and the Association for the Stu- dent of African American Life and History (ASALH). For more informa- tion: http://www.afroamcivilwar.org /our-story.html, call 202-667-2667 or email: Info@amcivilwar.)


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Tri-State Defender Platform


1. Racial prejudice worldwide must be de- stroyed. 2. Racially unrestricted membership in all jobs, public and private.


3. Equal employment opportunities on all jobs, public and private.


4. True representation in all U.S. police forces. 5. Complete cessation of all school segrega- tion. 6. Federal intervention to protect civil rights in all instances where civil rights compliance at the state level breaks down


DISTRIBUTION: Tri-State Defender is avail- able at newsstands, street sales, store vendors, mail subscription and honor boxes throughout the Greater Memphis area. No person may, without priorwritten permission of the Tri-State Defender, reprint any part of or duplicate by electronic device any portion without written permission. Copyright 2009 by Tri-State De- fender Publishing, Inc. Permission to Publisher, Tri-State Defender, 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN. 38103. Back copies can be ob- tained by calling the Tri-State Defender at (901) 523-1818, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.


The Tri-State Defender (USPS 780-220) is published weekly by Tri-State Defender Pub-


Memphis, TN. 38103. GENERAL INFORMATION: Any and all inquiries can be made in writing, by calling


POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Tri-State Defender, 203Beale Street, Suite 200, SUBSCRIPTIONS:Mail subscriptions to the Tri-State Defender are available upon request. (This Black History Month series


niversary of the firing on Ft. Sumter and the start of the American Civil War. The African American Civil War Memorial Foundation will commemorate the beginning Civil War with celebrities reading from Civil War period newspapers, speeches, and other documents an- nouncing the coming of the war and its profound effect on the ending of slavery in America. We will also have celebrities read from selected press responses to the election of President Lincoln and the anti-slav- ery platform of the Republican party of 1860. The African American Civil War


April 12will mark the 150th An-


equal. “This (the Civil War) is but anoth-


America that all men are created


human of


that was


Ohio stomps on American Dream of education


named “Jen” who commuted 45min- utes to school each day from her house in Manassas to our school in Centreville, Va. Jen lived with her mother and stepdad, but her es- tranged father still allowed her to use his address for residency so she could go to high-school in Fairfax County. Fairfax had great public schools


I had a friend in high-school


and offered more of the advanced placement courses that Jen needed for college. Jen, like millions of up- per class white kids and parents acrossAmerica, bend the rules of res- idency and location to create their own little “school choice programs” every year with little or no conse- quence. No one ever investigated her or questioned her right to drive 45 minutes to school. Apparently the same blind eye and leniency isn’t re- served for poor black folks, as Kelly Williams-Bolar of Akron, Ohio has just found out. Williams-Bolar is a single mother


cials got “suspicious” and spent $6,000 of taxpayer money on a pri- vate investigator, who determined that Williams-Bolar’s girl’s lived with her and not in the district with their grandfather. Instead of simply removing her children from the school or some misdemeanor charge, she was tried for grand theft ($30,000 in tuition) and tampering with records. After sentencing by Judge Patricia


of two who just served nine days in jail for doing exactly what millions of parents like Jen’s do for their kids ever year. In 2006, Williams-Bolar decided that the lousy Akron schools and terrible public housing neighbor- hood that she could afford would not help her daughters out of poverty. So she used her father’s address to send her daughters to the much more suc- cessful Copley-Fairlawn school dis- trict where he resided. Around 2008, school district offi-


Dr. Jason Johnson


KellyWilliams- Bolar


deterrent was needed for other indi- viduals who might think to defraud the various school districts,” said Cosgrove. Jurors could not reach a verdict on


Cosgrove,Williams-Bolar spent nine days in jail on a tampering convic- tion. Cosgrove had sentenced her to five years, but suspended all but 10 days. She also was given two years of probation and 80 hours of commu- nity service. “I felt that some punishment or


this scenario is obvious. No one be- lieves the district’s assiduous protec- tion of its borders is based on fidu- ciary concerns, it’s just another form of racial gerrymandering in public education. During an interview on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More” program last week, Copley- Fairlawn Supt. Brian Poe admitted that of the 47 residency cases investi- gated in the last five years 29 of the families were African American, 15 were white and 3 wereAsian. So it is abundantly clear thatAfrican-Ameri- can families are being put under par- ticular scrutiny for these rules viola- tions. I’ll bet you $30,000 in “back tuition” that if Williams-Bolar had a son who could play basketball like LeBron, or was being eyed by Ohio State, that rules would be bent for him to stay. The larger political implications of


a bizarre, cruel and likely racially and class-motivated prosecution of someone who has committed a “crime” that millions commit every year without such dire consequences. When you look at the specifics of Ohio public education the situation is


lar worked as a teacher’s aide in Akron public schools and was only three classes away from a full teach- ing certificate. Akron Public School Supt. David James has saidWilliams- Bolar would be able to resume her teaching job, if the state board of ed- ucation does not move to suspend or revoke her teaching certificate. Common sense dictates that this is


the theft charges and Cosgrove de- clared a mistrial. On Monday, Cos- grove granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the theft charges against Williams-Bolar and her father, who still faces charges severed from the original trial. In a sick ironic twist,Williams-Bo-


this case cannot be ignored either. Concerned citizens across America should be ringing Ohio Congress- woman Betty Sutton’s phone night and day demanding that she step in and do something about this gross in- justice. Every Republican pundit and think tank that has ever argued for school choice should be making Williams-Bolar’s situation a cause célèbre and offering to mount her le- gal appeal pro-bono. When a working mother is doing


everything in her power to give her kids the American dream and she’s sent to jail for it, it’s time for all American’s of conscience to get in- volved.


professor of political science and communications at Hiram College in Ohio, where he teaches courses in campaigns and elections, pop cul- ture, and the politics of sports. He can be reached at Johnson- ja@hiram.edu.)


(Dr. Jason Johnson is an associate


lives in the district and pays taxes so why didn’t that count towards his grandchildren’s “tuition”? If the school district is suggesting that only people with kids in the district pay school taxes, then there are a lot of childless folks who should be getting a big tax refund this April. Moreover, the racial component of


more policy spe- cific, her father


bring her entire conviction into question. To get even


Williams-Bolar’s “crime” was committed under an unconstitu- tional which


system, should


based on court cases filed by various groups in the state. This means


that


Court of Ohio has ruled that the state education system’s funding and organization is unconstitution- al four times in the last decade (1997, 2002,


even more dis- gusting. The Supreme


2001, 2003)


Subpar schools – now it’s a national security matter As if we haven’t gotten enough


bad news lately about the ineffec- tiveness of America’s education system, we now find out that nearly 25 percent of high school graduates who take the military entrance ex- am can’t pass it. According to a report from the Edu- cation Trust, a national orga- nization that works to pro- mote acade- mics


Judge Greg Mathis


ly answer basicmath, reading and science questions. This has mili- tary leaders worried that the num- ber ofAmericans eligible for mil- itary service will dwindle, putting our national security at risk. This is just more bad news for


pre-K through c o l l e g e , young mili- tary recruits can’t correct-


from


the country’s education system, which ranks 14th on a list of 34 developed countries for reading skills, 17th for science and 25th for math. On an international scale, our student’s are being out- paced by their counterparts in Eu- rope and Asia and, as a nation, we’ve yet to develop a system that allows our students to com- pete. In his recent State of the


Union address, President Obama challenged not only Congress but the country as a whole, im- ploring us to do a better job of educating our students and preparing them for a life past high school. He called for ex- panded educational funding and greater parent


Though he didn’t necessarily speak about teacher accountabil- ity – teachers unions fund cam- paigns at high dollar amounts so that’s a touchy political subject – we also know this area needs to be addressed as well. If we don’t invest more mon-


involvement.


ey and time we’ll continue to lose jobs to countries that better prepare their students for the workforce. Now, we have the added worry of the impact our subpar schools will have on our ability to protect ourselves as a nation. Improving the national education system is a priority for this country; our status as a world power – both economi- cally and militarily – depends on our ability to do better by our students.


(To contact Judge GregMathis, visit www.askjudgememphis.com)


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