Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 7-19-19

National
Justice Department Will Not Charge Officer Who Killed Eric Garner
Crown Act Law Makes California 1st State In U. S. To Ban Discrimination Based On Natural Hairstyles
The day before the five year anniversary of Eric Garner’s death, it was re- ported by multiple outlets that a federal prosecutor would not charge the police officer responsible for his death.
Per USA Today, The Jus- tice Department will not bring federal charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who held Gar- ner in a chokehold outside of a store in Staten Island in an attempt to arrest him for al- legedly selling cigarettes. Garner’s last words “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“In 2017, the city's Civil- ian Complaints Review Board determined that Pantaleo used excessive force,” USA Today reports. “Federal au- thorities have been conduct- ing a separate, years-long civil rights inquiry into Gar-
Storefront where Eric Garner was killed.
ner's death. Pantaleo also is awaiting a verdict in a NYPD disciplinary proceed- ing.”
During Pantaleo’s trial this past May, Stuart Lon- don– the police union lawyer who represented the officer– argued that Mr. Garner died from being “morbidly obese.”
“Those who have been able to not come to a rushed judgment, but have looked at
the video in explicit detail, see Pantaleo’s intent and objective was to take him down pursuant to how he was taught by NYPD, control him when they got on the ground, and then have him cuffed,” London said in an interview with the New York Times. “There was never any intent for him to exert pressure on his neck and choke him out the way the case has been portrayed.”
According to cnn.com, this past Wednesday, Califor- nia became the first state in the United States to ban em- ployers and school officials from discriminating against people based on their natural hair.
Gov. Gavin Newsom
signed the Crown Act (aka CA Senate Bill No. 188) into law, making it illegal to enforce dress code or grooming poli- cies against hairstyles such as afros, braids, twists, and locks.
To quote CNN’s article: Los Angeles Democrat Sen. Holly Mitchell, who introduced the bill earlier this year, said the law is about “inclusion, pride and choice.” “This law protects the right of Black Californi- ans to choose to wear their hair in its natural form, with- out pressure to conform to Eurocentric norms,” Mitchell said in a statement Wednesday. “I am so excited to see the culture change that
will ensue from the law.” Newsom said the law was “long-overdue” but many Americans only became aware of the issue last De- cember when a referee at a wrestling tournament in New Jersey ordered a black high school wrestler to cut off his dreadlocks or forfeit his
match.
The student had to choose
whether “to lose an athletic competition or lose his iden-
tity,” Newsom said. “That’s played out in
workplaces, it’s played out in schools — not just in athletic competitions and settings — every single day all across America in ways that are subtle, in ways overt,” New- som said during a bill-sign- ing ceremony.
The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2020, ad- dresses policies against nat- ural hair that are unfair toward women and people of color, the governor’s office said. “Workplace dress code and grooming policies that prohibit natural hair, in- cluding afros, braids, twists, and locks, have a disparate impact on black individuals as these policies are more likely to deter black appli- cants and burden or punish black employees than any other group,” according to the law.
Mitchell said that until recently an image search for “unprofessional hairstyles” only showed black women with natural hair, braids or twists. “I believe that any law, policy or practice that sanctions a job description that immediately excludes me from a profession — not because of my capacity or my capabilities or my experi- ence, but because of my hair- style choice — is long overdue for reform,” said Mitchell, who observed that she wears her hair in a natural style.
Langston Hughes’s Harlem Home Receives Major Preservation Grant
Langston Hughes’s
Harlem brownstone is one of the 22 sites across the coun- try that received a National Trust for Historic Preserva- tion grant, the New York Daily News first reported.
Part of the African Amer- ican Cultural Heritage Action Fund—aimed at uplifting and restoring historic places that uncover stories of African Americans—the sites will re- ceive more than $1.6 million in grants, according to a Na- tional Trust statement.
A poet, activist, and one of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes lived in the East Harlem home at 20 East 127th Street for the last 20 years of his life. The Ital- ianate-style brownstone was built in 1869 and designed by architect Alexander Wil- son, according to the Land- marks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) report.
The brownstone is now home to the I, Too, Arts Col- lective nonprofit, which pre- serves Hughes’s legacy and
LANGSTON HUGHES’ HOME
supports emerging artists from underrepresented com- munities. And that was thanks to Renee Watson, a Harlem writer and the orga- nization’s founder, who launched a crowdfunding campaign back in 2016 to rent the house—which was vacant for years—and turn it into the space that it is today.
“The recipients of this funding shine a light on once lived stories and Black cul- ture, some familiar and some yet untold, that weave to- gether the complex story of
American history in the United States,” Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, said during the announcement at the 25th Essence Festival in New Orleans.
Harriet Tubman’s
home in Auburn, New York, is also among the grant recip- ients. Other awardees include the African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School in Boston; the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston; and God’s Lit- tle Acre in Newport, RI.
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