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THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE


November 24-30, 2010 Page A-3


Second Front Blacks made impact in key midterm races


By Denise Stewart Black voter turnout nationwide increased


only slightly in the recent midterm election. But in a few key states, the percentage of Blacks voting increased significantly, giving Democrats the edge, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Joint Center for Politi- cal and Economic Studies.


The report by the Washington, D.C.–based


think tank also said that in some states, the non-Hispanic white vote increased so much that the Black vote did not carry influence.


Nationwide, about 90 million people went to


the polls in the 2010 mid-term election, about 42 percent of the registered voters. In 2006, a comparable midterm year, about 40 percent of registered voters went to the polls.


Blacks accounted for roughly 10 percent of


the voters in 2010 and 2006, the analysis esti- mates. While that percentage is less than the 13 percent voting in the 2008 presidential elec- tion, that difference is to be expected, observ- ers said.


“The 13 percent was not likely to be matched


in the mid-term, because in 2008, you had so many new voters coming out to vote for Obama,” said Dr. Robert Smith, a political science pro- fessor at San Francisco State University.


“President Obama understands that a good


deal of that vote was a personal vote for him and not necessarily a vote for the Democratic Party,” Smith told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “I am sure they probably are already studying to find ways to reinvigorate that energy among the new and young voters.”


In places like California, where the percent-


age of Black voters almost doubled, the Black vote helped Democrats in that state maintain control of both houses of the legislature while


reclaiming the governor’s seat, holding on to a key U.S. Senate position.


Lighter sentence in historic killing decried


By Kenya Beverly Former Alabama State


Trooper James Bonard Fowler will spend six months in jail after pleading guilty Monday to second-degree manslaugh- ter in the 1965 death of civil rights marcher Jimmie Lee Jackson, a slaying that touched off the Bloody Sunday march in Selma.


While the plea for the 77-


year-old Fowler sends another civil rights era killer to jail, leaders in Alabama’s Black Belt say the sentence is much too light for the death of a man who sacrificed so much.


“This man still will have


his right to vote. Jimmie Lee Jackson gave his life for the right of blacks and other mi- norities to vote,” Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr. told BlackAmericaWeb. com. “I don’t know of another civil rights era murder case that resulted in such a light sentence.”


Jackson and some of his


family members were among those in a Feb. 18, 1965 civil rights march in the Perry County town of Marion, about 80 miles from Montgomery. The march began at a local church, but turned chaotic as it progressed.


Inside Mack’s Café, Jack-


son’s mother and grandfather had been clubbed to floor when the 26-year-old Jimmie Lee tried to protect them, witnesses said. That’s when Fowler, one of several state police on the scene, fired his


gun. Jackson was struck in the


stomach and died eight days later from his wounds.


Civil rights activists, deter-


mined to gain voting rights, organized a march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights on March 7, 1965. The marchers were attacked and brutally beaten by lawmen at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in their first attempt.


Two weeks later, with the


eyes of America focused on the tiny town of Selma, march- ers again set out to cross the bridge, this time with suc- cess.


A Black district attorney,


Michael Jackson, resurrect- ed the Jimmie Lee Jackson murder case in 2007. It was set to go to trial on Nov. 29, after being delayed several times.


Several Blacks who grew up


in Marion and Selma say they wanted to see an actual jury trial in the case and don’t un- derstand why the district at- torney opted for a plea.


“The district attorney res-


urrected the case, perpetrat- ing as if he was going to seek justice, but what he did was make a joke out of the pro- cess,” Turner said. “Either he had no case, or he sought a headline instead of justice.”


District Attorney Michael


Jackson, no relation to the victim, recommended the man- slaughter plea to the family. He said he wanted Fowler to acknowledge what he did, apologize to the family and


serve some time behind bars. “This is almost like a death


sentence for him at his age,” he told reporters at the court- house.


But the slain man’s daugh-


ter, Cordelia Billingsley, said, “This is supposed to be clo- sure, but there will never be closure.”


Fowler apologized to Jack-


son’s family after entering the plea. He also said he didn’t mean to kill anyone.


“I was coming over here


to save lives. I didn’t mean to take lives. I wish I could redo it,” he said.


Defense attorney George


Beck said Fowler agreed to plead guilty to the reduced charge because he was con- cerned he couldn’t get a fair trial in Perry County, and his health is poor.


Selma, Alabama attor-


ney Bruce Boynton, who was the plaintiff in the landmark Boynton vs. Commonwealth of Virginia case involving Free- dom Riders, has waged many battles in courtrooms for civil rights, but he said he was baf- fled by Monday’s plea.


“I haven’t talked to Michael


(Jackson), so I don’t know if he did not have any evidence,” said Boynton. “The public should have had an opportuni- ty for a jury trial so they could hear whatever evidence that was available.


“I think this plea is final,”


Boynton told BlackAmeri- caWeb.com.


Elected officials and political candidates can send information regarding issues to bthompson@michronicle.com


By Ansel Herz Caribbean360.com PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — “People are


going to take the body to MINUSTAH to show them what they did,” Jean-Luc Surfin told IPS by phone as riots erupted against Haiti’s U.N. peacekeeping force on Monday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien.


Surfin, a 24-year-old bank teller, said he


walked by a young man lying dead in the street blocks away from his home, who bystanders said was shot by peacekeeping troops.


At least two protesters have been reported


killed, one shot in the back, a local official told the media. U.N. troops say they acted in self- defence.


“I think the people are frustrated right now.


That’s why they’re all over the street. They say they’re going to fight to the death,” Surfin told IPS.


He said demonstrators erected barricades


in the street and pelted troops with stones and bottles. Two police stations were set on fire.


Protests were reported in the cities of Hinche


and Gonaives in Haiti’s cholera-ravaged central region as well.


Twitter user Stanley Stacos said protesters


tried to leave the coffin of a man who died of cholera in front of a Nepali peacekeeping base in Hinche.


Demonstrators blame foreign peacekeepers


for introducing the infectious disease into the country. The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the strain of cholera bacte- ria spreading in Haiti matches the one endemic in South Asia.


An estimated 200,000 people could be sick-


ened before the epidemic is brought under control, an effort that could take up to six months.


Authorities are struggling to contain an out-


break that has killed over 900 people, just two weeks before scheduled elections.


“It’s a tradition in Haiti to have violence


before the elections,” MINUSTAH spokesman Vincenzo Pugliese told IPS.


California may also be close to electing its first African American attorney general. The


most recent count has less than 1,000 votes separating Democrat Kamala Harris and Steve Cooley, the Republican.


James Taylor, a political scientist at the Uni-


versity of San Francisco, said Blacks went to the polls to support Harris and to support Jerry Brown, a popular Democrat.


“As mayor, Brown lives in the black section


of Oakland. You see him at clubs just hanging out to be among the people, and he doesn’t have an entourage,” Taylor told BlackAmeri- caWeb.com. “Plus, you had Barack and Mi- chelle Obama making several visits here. Bill Clinton and Joe Biden came to California.”


Heavy Black voter turnout in places like


California and Delaware helped offset a Repub- lican onslaught, Taylor said.


According to the Joint Center’s report, in


Delaware, Democrat Chris Coons benefitted from record turnout among Black voters. The share of the Black vote was 22 percent, and Coons defeated Republican Christine O’Donnell to capture the seat formerly held by Vice Presi- dent Joe Biden.


Blacks make up 20.4 percent of the state’s


population, and nine out of 10 Blacks voted for a Democrat in Delaware.


In Illinois, the Black vote increased signifi-


cantly, but it did not swing the results in the race for the state Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama. Republican Mike Kirk won that seat in a state where the Black share of the votes increased from 2006 midterm elec- tion to 19 percent in the 2010 midterm.


The Democratic Party continues to be the


party of choice for the greatest share of black voters. According to the analysis, 90 percent of Blacks voted for Democrats and 9 percent for Republicans.


Unexplained disparity in Black pre-term births


The Center for Healthcare


Research & Transformation (CHRT) based at the Uni- versity of Michigan has re- leased its Prematurity Issue Brief that shows pre-term births — births at less than 37 weeks of gestation — are the leading cause of health prob- lems in infants and estimated to cost the U.S. more than $26 billion annually. In addition, the report shows that a Black infant in Michigan is 70% more likely to be born prema- turely than an infant of any other race.


“One in eight babies is


born prematurely in the U.S. and Michigan with seri- ous consequences for infant morbidity and mortality,” said Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of CHRT.


“Premature infants are at


high risk for respiratory prob- lems and mortality and, are among the most significant cost drivers in health care. Yet, risk factors for preterm birth are complex and not fully un- derstood including why black infants are more likely to be born prematurely than infants of other races.”


Highlights of the Prematuri-


ty Issue Brief, a compilation of national and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) data, include:


• Late preterm births in Mich- igan, those between 34 and 37 weeks of gestation, increased by 20% from 1996 – 2006 while premature births, those less than 34 weeks gestation, re- mained stable. While nearly all of the increase in late preterm births was Cesarean section (C-section), available data do not show if these C-sections were medically indicated or elective.


• There is a significant dis- parity in the rate of prema- ture births among Blacks as compared to White, Asian and Hispanic populations. Black infants are 70 percent more likely to be born pre- maturely than White infants. Eleven percent of white and Hispanic infants and 9.9% of Asian infants are born prema- turely, while almost 19 per- cent of Black infants are born prematurely. This contributes to disparities in infant mortal- ity rates within these groups. Theory suggests that Black mothers experience more stress during pregnancy than mothers of other races, lead- ing to more premature births.


• Prematurity/low birth weight is the single larg- est cause of infant mortality in Michigan. Preterm infants born to Black mothers are more likely to die in the peri- natal period (after 22 weeks’ gestation or within 7 days of birth) than those born to white mothers.


• Known risk factors for pre- mature birth are history of preterm birth, being pregnant with multiple fetuses, use of in vitro fertilization even in singleton births, smoking, inadequate prenatal care, and being a relatively younger or older mother.


• The average charge per discharge for premature birth and low birth weight babies in Michigan was $102,103, ap- proximately 14 times higher than the average charge per discharge of $7,182 for a healthy infant birth.


• Preterm births represent just 10.3% of BCBSM births in Michigan but comprise 52.6% of medical spending in the first year of life.


“Prematurity is recognized


as the single most important area in maternal child health where we need research to improve outcomes,” said Tim- othy R. B. Johnson, M.D., pro- fessor and chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology Department, Uni- versity of MichiganSchool of Medicine. “The fact that there are profound disparities in the U.S. and in Michigan in the in- cidence and outcomes of pre- maturity makes attention to this topic even more critical.”


The Prematurity Issue


Brief is the fifth in a series examining the price of health care in Michigan. While the report identifies important trends, costs and dispari- ties, more research is needed to begin to understand the causes of premature birth.


“We don’t know enough


about the risk factors and causes of the rise in prema- ture births. We can speculate about the impact of technol- ogy and fertility interven- tions but these births repre- sent only a small percentage of total births. More study is needed so that we can improve outcomes, reduce disparities, and reduce the real and human cost of premature birth,” said Udow-Phillips.


The Center for Health-


care Research & Transforma- tion sponsors research and public information to promote evidence-based health care delivery, improve population health, and expand access to care. Housed at the University of Michigan, CHRT is a part- nership between U-M and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michi- gan to test the best ideas for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system.


Riots erupt in Haiti as cholera toll nears 1,000 “People are confused, scared, and I think


at this time people can be manipulated in one direction or another.Basically MINUSTAH and cholera are in politics now, it’s being exploit- ed,” he said, but declined to name any individ- ual or group responsible.


“Someone is behind it. The population


doesn’t have the means to communicate with each other and set up something this way. There’s someone behind this to motivate people to do this. Clearly, it’s part of a plan,” Pugliese said.


Anger at U.N. troops has simmered and


boiled over into peaceful protests several times since the body of teenaged Gerard Jean Gilles was found hanging from a tree inside a Cap- Haitien peacekeeping base in late August.


Days later, a peacekeeping patrol respond-


ed with tear gas after being bombarded with stones. One soldier was injured, according to an internal U.N. report.


Seventeen civil society organisations au-


thored an open letter to the head of MINUSTAH requesting an independent inquiry and con-


demning what they called “your decision to ob- struct Haitian justice in this case”.


MINUSTAH spokesperson Pugliese told IPS


the peacekeeping force’s internal investigation found that Gilles committed suicide.


In the middle of a street in Champs de Mars,


a plaza in the capital Port-au-Prince, the faint smell of burnt rubber wafted from the charred remains of two tires. Students at the Faculty of Ethnology said they burned the tires and threw rocks at MINUSTAH vehicles in a solidarity pro- test.


IPS reported in May that MINUSTAH troops


responded with warning shots, rubber bullets, and over 30 canisters of tear gas that caused injuries in the tent camps in the plaza.


But this time, according to students, the


peacekeeping patrol “took off.” Pugliese could not confirm or deny.


Students said more protests against U.N.


peacekeepers are being planned for the near future.


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