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Vol.
9 No. 48…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…December 1,
2006
Bit of History
John Alexander Sommerville (1882-1972)
Born in Jamaica on December 1, 1882, John Alexander Sommerville immigrated to the United States in search of a new life. He initially settled in San Francisco, California, where he came face-to-face with the racist realities of US life. Sommerville moved to Los Angeles. For two years, he worked in a bowling alley and saved enough money to attend the USC School of Dentistry.
Sommerville's white classmates threatened to boycott classes, if he was not removed. Apparently, the white students opposed his presence and objected to him being treated as their equal. Like Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, he refused to be removed.
Five years after arriving in the US, Sommerville became the first black person to graduate from the USC School of Dentistry. He graduated first in his class with the highest score recorded at the time. Sommerville opened his dentist office at 4th and Broadway in the heart of LA's black business district. He became the first black member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
In 1912, Sommerville married Vada Watson, the first black female, second black person to graduate from the USC School of Dentistry. She also became the first black female certified to practice dentistry in the state of California. The Sommerville's worked tirelessly to achieve the good life for themselves under difficult circumstances, as discrimination was prevalent during this period in US history. While the couple prospered, many blacks in the City of Los Angeles were less fortunate. They founded the LA Chapter of the NAACP.
Socioeconomic and political restrictions placed on blacks became more pervasive with an influx of people from other states, especially whites and blacks from the south. Jim Crow laws placed public hotels off limits to blacks. To satisfy the growing black demand for housing, Sommerville built La Vada, a 26-unit apartment building. He later built Hotel Sommerville.
Like so many businessmen, Sommerville suffered a financial setback during the 1929 stock market crash. Although forced to sell his hotel, Sommerville did recover from his financial woes. Active in politics, he became the first black delegate to the California Democratic National Convention (1936). The first black appointed to the Los Angeles Police Commission (1949), Sommerville was declared an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to Anglo-American relations (1954).
Vada Sommerville died in 1972. Months later, John
Sommerville died at the age of 91. (Source: www.aaregistry.com)
Grandma Died, Police Lied
On November 21, 2006, undercover narcotics officers, armed with a 'no-knock' warrant signed by Fulton County Magistrate Kimberly Warden, burst into the home of 88-year old Kathryn Johnston. Early reporting indicated the elderly woman fired on the officers. During the melee, she reportedly wounded three, none seriously. Johnston, shot twice in the chest, was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to a police informant, investigators involved in the botched raid asked him to lie and go along with the story they fabricated after the shooting incident. The informant has been placed in protective custody.
Atlanta Police Chief Richard J. Pennington has promised a thorough investigation. He has asked the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Fulton County district attorney's office to assist in uncovering the truth. Until the investigation is concluded, the narcotics team has been placed on administrative leave with pay.
By John Burl Smith
Revealing his lack of diplomatic and foreign policy savoir-faire following
"shock and awe," George W. Bush designated Iraq "The central
front in the war on terror." Searching for neocon's Holy Grail, "A
New American Century," Bush's domestic policies, opposing affirmative
action, Title IX, pubic education, Social Security and Medicare, became the
scrimmage line. Up front at Bob Jones University about racial justice, equality
and black economic empowerment, Bush's 2004 campaign plan to win the war in
Iraq showed his lack of political savvy as well. Enriching friends and
political supporters while bankrupting the US, Bush now hopes to pass Iraq off
while keeping the oil and right-of-ways for US companies, as in Afghanistan.
Including Homeland Security, Bush was given everything he asked for to win. He was denied nothing. No WMD, various justifications - democratizing Iraq, stabilizing it, etc. - have been offered as winning plans. Money for schools, hospitals, water systems and power plants was his first priority because "Iraqis would greet us with flowers." The money has been spent. Is there anything to show for it? No one can point to what we got for all that money.
What does Iraq have to do with Bush's domestic spending? Every penny spent to invade Iraq is a penny that should have gone to schools, hospitals, water systems, recreation and infrastructure in the US. For instance, simply to fund the conservative political movement, Bush drained off even more money that should have gone to social programs with his faith based initiative. The real crime in that sleight-of-hand is money went to rich churches not the poor. Funds funneled into faith- based went into the pockets of preachers supporting Bush. No oversight, faith-based is far less efficient and effective than community-based social programs.
Warring in Iraq put blacks on the front line in the "war on terror." Throwing money at Iraq, while black people were catching hell, Bush and Congress have cut aid for cities to the marrow; there is no bone left. Supplemental government employment, manufacturing or production jobs left cities long before they left the country. Outsourced, American taxpayers pay more salaries in Honk Kong than in DeKalb County Georgia. No Child Left Behind replaced education with fundamentalism. This changed curriculums from knowledge to religious based, and the US has been left behind by countries that it sent teachers to ten years ago.
Warred upon, urban dwellers in the US and Iraqis share a similar fate in having no right of self-defense. Whether on streets or in their homes, there is a lack of safety. Iraqi homes can be invaded at anytime by US soldiers, property destroyed and the occupants killed. No matter how gruesome the circumstances, if anything at all is done, soldiers only get slapped on the wrist. Blacks in the US are under the same threat to life, limb and property from police.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, police killed blacks at an alarming rate. Amadou Diallo in 1999 and Sean Bell in 2006 died in hails of bullets from police for nothing more than living while black. Recent shooting deaths, like Anglio Freeland, who Florida police fired at 110 times, indicate the war continues. Whites deny racism is involved in such gruesome murders. However the question remains, why whites are never killed by police in this manner?
The latest case in point. Looking for a drug suspect and armed with a "no knock search warrant," three hooded undercover Atlanta police raided the home of Kathryn Johnson, an eighty-eight year old grandmother. Kicking in the door, shots were fired and granny lay dead. Police said she shot first without provocation, so they killed her. Police consider the old woman's death justified. Warred upon while black, Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) survived a midnight attack by undercover cops. Charged with attempted murder, he is serving life in prison. Had he died, the undercover cops would have been exonerated. When blacks die in unjustified police shootings, it's oops, my bad! If they defend their life, a crime was committed! Is this Iraq or did black hatred get extended to Iraq?
Disgruntled
wants to know: In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the
Kerner Commission to investigate the cause of the race riots of the mid-1960s.
Headed by Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner, the commission concluded the US was moving
towards two societies, one black and one white - "separate but
unequal." A number of lawmakers have called on the Justice Department to
investigate the recent spate of high-profile police killings. Given neither the
racist institutions established to support the 3/5 Compromise nor deeply held
racial attitudes, as displayed in the recent racist rant by Michael Richards,
have changed little since the 1960s, could another Kerner Commission kick start
a much-needed dialogue on race in America?
Disgruntled says: You cannot protect and
serve those you fear!
Disgruntled feels: Slammed! In general,
telephone consumers are nickeled and dimed to the poorhouse. I recently
discovered Bellsouth had assigned my telephone number to AT&T for long
distance, after I had specifically opted out of long distance on my land line.
AT&T blames Bellsouth, which blames AT&T. Neither will fully reimburse
me for all the erroneous charges. This is a form of slamming that should be
illegal.
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is not shy when it comes to the mental
and sometimes physical torture of his younger brother - Ty. He apparently likes
making him cry. When asked for comments on his violent views and the sorry
state of their relationship, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro boldly exclaimed, "It's
my job. And, I'm good at it!"
Police Brutality
By Ank Justice SteadySpear
It's not a fantasy it’s very much a reality
Be afraid- be very afraid of police brutality
In every era of humanity
these demons harm many innocents of society
For the wealthy in prosperity they protect and serve
From stone to gun
they are following immoral codes of hired mercenaries
Everywhere under the sun
there is no hiding no where to run
In human daughters and sons
there is great power in union as well as their guns
As a little boy I felt police brutality,
I saw one shoot a man down
Then told me to run,
my father in financial difficulties
extended his brutality
A police stabbed me with a gun,
whipped me with a cane
then lied about it the next day
For hissing his teeth
a sixteen-year old boy never got up off the street
Brooklyn New York I saw the body of a friend
21 shots most in the back police did that
When a police say you must
I give no second chance to trust?
In court I will contest the law
to show you have gone too far
Police brutality and evil doctors of humanity
insured by cooperating fatality
The companies of crazed mentality
causing great pain and suffering
My internal is crying; I am slowly dying
my screams have been muted
The constitutions of men's laws are polluted
so my anguish is fluted
One day justice will be my token
I hope my back will not be broken
Standing firm is hard
especially with blows to head, ribs and feet
Doctors care not to treat
while the insurance companies cleaning their teeth
A crooked cop not checking the facts,
the statement of witness on the spot
Who do I seek payment for their attacks
and breach of contracts
My health is deteriorating
I am having many spasms and stiffness of the side
I no longer can sit comfortable in relax
or walk without breaths of gaps
I am so poor
I ponder if the next time I will get up from the floor
The pains are sharp when they attack
it's like a knife in my side and back
I know I will not live too long
for my wife and daughter I will be strong
Deep breathing to redirect the pains
controlling the flowing of blood through my veins
Holland's police brutality
my wife and I experienced in the Netherlands this reality
On the third day of the eleventh month,
year two thousand and one
I was happy he did not shoot me where I stand
because I am a full-black man.
About Me: American/Jamaican poet and
music student living in Holland with his wife Diana and child Ama, sample Ank's
art at www.iota.tv/the_scribe/poetry/chitao.html.
I Wish Thanksgiving Were For All of Us
By Jeralyn Merritt
I'm not in a particularly upbeat mood this Thanksgiving. I know we just won an election
and hopefully have started on a path to end the War in Iraq and take back our
country from the right-wing extremists. I'm thankful that the days of
appointing right-wing ideologues to our federal courts and the Supreme Court
may be behind us.
But I live in a peculiar world, one that is filled with days spent visiting
mostly non-violent prisoners in jails, and it saddens me that for them and
their children and parents, I see little hope.
For two hours on Sunday night, I sat on a cold bench at the jail in Omaha,
waiting to get in to see a client (the mechanical doors had malfunctioned, and
there was nothing anyone could do until a repairman fixed them.) The bench was
in a waiting room between the door to the outside world and the partitioned glass
window where a lone sheriff's deputy sat, taking money from a stream of inmate
family members, who were bringing it to be placed on the inmates' accounts so
they could buy food and hygiene items from the commissary.
In order for the inmate to be able to purchase anything from the commissary and
receive it by Thanksgiving, the money had to be in by Sunday night. The
Sheriff's deputy would come out for five minute stretches and then disappear
behind closed doors for a half hour or so. During the time she was gone, the
room would fill with parents, grandparents and children, all coming to put $20
or $40 on their loved one's "book" so that their Thanksgiving would
be a little less dreary. The line got really long at times and I got to hear
all their stories. It was just a parade of pitifuls, one after the other.
The incarcerated are human beings too. Everyone is more than the sum of their
misdeeds. Wouldn't we be better off shortening the prison terms of non-violent
offenders and spending the money we saved on educating, rehabilitating and
training them to live productive lives? It's not just drug and economic crimes.
When are we going to stop allowing prosecutors to try juveniles as adults where
they become especially at risk in adult prisons? America is a prison nation.
More than two million are currently housed in our state and federal jails. Of
those, more than one million are incarcerated for non-violent offenses at a
cost of more than $24 billion per year.
What I hope for in the coming two years is that Democrats tackle their agenda
of ending the War, providing universal health care and saving Social Security
as fast as possible, so they can turn their attention from those at the center,
the middle class, to the most marginalized among us -- the more than 2 million
inmates in our prisons.
When that happens, then I'll give my thanks. (Read this and other posts by
Merritt at www.huffingtonpost.com)
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email www.ajc.com Atlanta Officer accused of lying in
'01 wreck...By S.A. REID...An Atlanta narcotics officer tied to last week's
deadly drug raid on a elderly woman's home was the subject of a 2002 lawsuit
that said he "fabricated" the events that led to his head-on traffic
collision with motorcyclist Samuel T. Gulley Jr., who received a $450,000
payment from the city last year to settle his claims against Officer Arthur B.
Tesler, the city and the Atlanta Police Department. The civil case was
dismissed after the settlement by Fulton County State Court.
Email www.liberalcomment.com Iran signs
its "death warrant", claims conservative analyst...Extreme right-wing
columnist Jerome Corsi claims that Iran has signed its death warrant with its
recent decision to move away from the U.S. dollar in its foreign exchange
transactions. As a frame of reference, Saddam Hussein also announced a policy
of dollar divestment just prior to the invasion of his country.
Email www.prisonpolicy.org Crime &
Punishment How the US prison system makes minority communities pay..."At
the start of Reagan's administration in 1980, there were approximately 501,886
prisoners in the nation's prisons and jails, according to the Bureau of Justice
Statistics. In June 2001, there were 1,800,300, a nearly four-fold increase. Of
this number, 803,400 were black males and 69,500 were black females. This boom
shifted federal funds from minority and poor communities that export prisoners
to poor white towns, which started "hosting" prisons in the 1990s as
a means of escaping economic despair. Studies show that in a society that
ratcheted up its criminal penalties to control crime and place offenders out of
sight and out of mind, the prison industry has begun to affect the political
landscape." To the ruling elites, the clang of cell doors was also a big
kaching for investors and corporate types looking to get rich; but first they
had to use their pull with the politicians to pass laws to make more holding
facilities necessary.
|| 2006
Issues ||
The DISH
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