Page 22 - Florida Sentinel 4-22-16 Edition

National
Anonymous Donor Gives $34 Million To Oakland’s Poor
Parents, Community Outraged After Elementary Aged Children Arrested For Not Stopping Fight
Outraged dad Zacchaeus Crawford with two of his children.
Father Accidentally Kills 4-Year-Old With Semi- Automatic
Talk about giving quietly. Whew! This donor, who plopped down a check for $34 million dollars to assist entre- preneurs, a school district, nonprofit organizations and more in Oakland, California has taken being humble to a whole new level.
But it happened. Quietly.
The donor is said to have wanted to assist low income en- trepreneurs and children. And according to KGO-TV News, the anonymous donor gave the money to the San Francisco Foundation, and the donation was split between 17 organiza- tions. The donor was very spe- cific.
According to Fred Black- well, the spokesperson for the San Francisco Foundation, the donor was very clear about wanting to invest in Oakland. “They said they want it to go to Oakland. They want it to be transformative.”
MURFREESBORO, TN --- Angry parents and other com- munity members flocked to the First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Sun- day, demanding action after at least five students, ages 6 to 10, at Hobgood Elementary School were handcuffed and detained Friday, the Daily News Journal reports.
The students, the report notes, were accused of not stopping a fight that had hap-
pened earlier off the school grounds. Police officers report- edly watched video of the al- tercation and got arrest warrants for the students who chose not to intervene, accord- ing to the News Journal. The students were released from police custody later on Friday.
Murfreesboro Police Chief Karl Durr and City Manager Rob Lyons were present at the community meeting, which the church hosted.
Cong. Corrine Brown: 22 Veteran Suicides A Day Is Unacceptable
In this week’s CBC Message to America, Congresswoman Cor- rine Brown (D-FL) the ranking member of Veterans Affairs discusses how the Veterans Crisis Line can help prevent suicides amongst our soldiers. American war veterans experi- ence “22 suicides a day.” “One [suicide] is unacceptable,” she said.
She encouraged the Ameri- can public to “soldier up and reach out to veterans and make sure that they’re calling the VA.”
According to Brown, only three out of the twenty-two sui- cide victims are involved with Veterans Affairs. She added many of the soldiers who com- mit suicide are African-Ameri- cans who served in the Vietnam
Military veterans are dying by their own hands.
War and “they are not a part of the system.”
“We as a community need to soldier up and get them in- volved” in Veterans Affairs Rep. Brown said.
If you are a vet struggling or if you know of a military vet- eran who is in crisis please call 1-800- 237-8255 and select op- tion one.
Question Being Raised: Should Georgetown University Compensate Families Of The Slaves They Sold
Mother and her 4- year- old that died after shot in the face by dad.
PHILADELPHIA, PA --- Philadelphia man has been ar- rested and charged with fatally shooting his 4-year-old daugh- ter in the face, according to local news reports.
The girl’s parent identified by NBC Philadelphia as Maurice Phillips, has been charged with third-degree murder, in- voluntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child after police said he admit- ted that he was messing around with his semiautomatic hand- gun Saturday when it acciden- tally went off — and a bullet struck his daughter.
Police initially thought the girl had been shot by her 5- year-old sibling. But after an investigation, the man “admit- ted to accidentally shooting the victim, and stated that the sib- ling had nothing to do with it.
Police responded to the Kensington neighborhood home about 2:30 p.m. on Sat- urday and discovered the 4- year-old dead; her father was nowhere to be found, authori- ties said. The man turned him- self in later that night. Neighbors said the mother was devastated by the shooting. They also she was very protec- tive of her children, and did not allow them to play outside, ex- cept in the backyard.
WASHINGTON, D.C. Georgetown University is the latest college in the national spotlight for its historic link to slavery. The university, during an existential financial crisis in 1838, earned millions from selling 272 of its slaves.
Many at Georgetown are now asking whether it’s time for the Catholic university to make amends to the slaves’ descen- dants, according to The New York Times.
It’s heartbreaking. The records indicate that the youngest slave sold to save Georgetown was just 2 months old. The infant and its mother were among the group of grandparents, pregnant women, toddlers, and fathers- to-be. They were bound and forced onto a ship sailing from their plantation home in Mary- land to work in Louisiana.
To modern eyes, the contra- diction is glaring: How could the Catholic priests who led the university hold scores of human beings in cruel bondage and then sell them into harsher circumstances? Historians told the Times that Georgetown depended on prof- its from Jesuit plantations in Maryland to finance the col-
lege. Some of the slaves were donated by rich parishioners. The priests required their slaves to attend Mass, but life was not easy. They were whipped and sold like any other slaves.
The mass sale of 272 men, women, and children was par- ticularly troubling—even at that time. Two Georgetown Je- suit presidents negotiated the transaction that earned the college $3.3 million in today’s dollars. They used about $500,000 to settle George- town’s debts, the Times re- ports.
This news comes against the backdrop of protests and racial tension at colleges with links to slavery. Recently, Harvard University acknowledged its slave past and decided to re- place its law school’s shield be- cause it incorporated the crest of the slave-owning family that helped to finance the law school.
Following student protests, Georgetown agreed to remove the names of two former pres- idents – the Rev. Thomas F. Mulledy and the Rev. William McSherry – from campus buildings. But many say that’s not enough.
Top High School Recruit Received VM Threats Before Visiting Clemson
Paramus Catholic High School’s Rashan Gary, widely regarded as the top high school athlete in the country, was the target of a threat left on the voicemail of the New Jersey school’s athletic department by someone identifying himself as a fan of Clemson University, a school Rashan had been look- ing into, NorthJersey.com re- ports.
The 58-second message was left at 2:30 a.m. Jan. 28, just one day before Rashan’s offi- cial visit to Clemson, authori- ties say.
According to authorities, the mysterious caller said, “Yes, this here is ‘Clemson Dan,’ and this message is for Mr. Rashan Gary. We just wantin’ to know if you’re coming down here for a visit, you better be se- rious about it, ’cause there’s only two things we love, and that’s Clemson football and the KKK.
Once officials at Paramus Catholic heard the message, they tried to notify the defen- sive lineman and his mother, Jennifer Coney. However, neither of them could be reached because both were traveling to Atlanta, where Rashan was to receive the
RASHAN GARY
Bobby Dodd Award as the best high school lineman in the country. After the award, the mother-son duo were traveling straight to South Carolina to of- ficially visit Clemson.
The high school’s president, Jim Vail, then decided to reach out to Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables to warn him about the message and to ask the coach to guaran- tee Rashan’s safety during the visit. Clemson officials did not tell Rashan’s mother about the phone call when they ar- rived on campus, and that con- cerned her after she found out.
At the end of the day, Rashan chose to commit to the Univer- sity of Michigan, but Coney said that she did not sway her son in that decision at all.
PAGE 10-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016