Black Man’s Killing by Police Shakes La. Town

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and MARY FOSTER
Associated Press Writers
Shaun Monroe holds a program from the funeral of his father Bernard Monroe Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at his fathers house in Homer, La.

HOMER, La. (AP) — For 73 years before his killing by a white police officer, Bernard Monroe led a life in this northern Louisiana town as peaceful as they come – five kids with his wife of five decades, all raised in the same house, supported by the same job.

The black man’s shooting death is attracting far more attention than he ever did, raising racial tensions between the black community and Homer’s police department.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize a massive 2007 civil rights demonstration in Jena after six black teenagers were charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate, planned to lead a Friday afternoon rally in Homer to protest Monroe’s killing.

“The parallel here is that the local community cannot trust law enforcement and cannot trust the process to go forward without outside help,” Sharpton said.

Rendered mute after losing his larynx to cancer, Monroe was a 73-year-old retired power company lineman who was in his usual spot on a mild Friday afternoon in February when events unfolded: A chair by the gate led to his Adams Street home. A barbecue cooker smoked beside a picnic table in the yard. A dozen or so family members talked and played nearby.

All seemed calm, until two Homer police officers drove up.

In a report to state authorities, Homer police said Officer Tim Cox and another officer they have refused to identify chased Monroe’s son, Shaun, 38, from a suspected drug deal blocks away to his father’s house.

Witnesses dispute that account, saying the younger Monroe was talking to his sister-in-law in a truck in front of the house when the officers arrived.

All agree Shaun Monroe, who had an arrest record for assault and battery but no current warrants, drove up the driveway and went into the house. Two white police officers followed him. Within minutes, he ran back outside, followed by an unidentified officer who Tasered him in the front yard.

Seeing the commotion, Bernard Monroe confronted the officer. Police said that he advanced on them with a pistol and that Cox, who was still inside the house, shot at him through a screen door.

Monroe fell dead. How many shots were fired isn’t clear; the coroner has refused to release an autopsy report, citing the active investigation.

Police said Monroe was shot after he pointed a gun at them, though no one claims Monroe fired shots. Friends and family said he was holding a bottle of sports water. They accuse police of planting a gun he owned next to his body.

“Mr. Ben didn’t have a gun,” said 32-year-old neighbor Marcus Frazier, who was there that day. “I saw that other officer pick up the gun from out of a chair on the porch and put it by him.”

Frazier said Monroe was known to keep a gun for protection because of local drug activity.

Despite the chase and Tasering, Shaun Monroe was not arrested. He and other relatives would not comment afterward.

Monroe’s gun is being DNA-tested by state police. The findings of their investigation will be given to District Attorney Jonathan Stewart, who would decide whether to file charges.

The case also has led to FBI and State Police investigations and drawn attention from national civil rights leaders.

“We’ve had a good relationship, blacks and whites, but this thing has done a lot of damage,” said Michael Wade, one of three blacks on the five-member town council. “To shoot down a family man that had never done any harm, had no police record, caused no trouble. Suddenly everyone is looking around wondering why it happened and if race was the reason.”

Homer, a town of 3,800 about 45 miles northwest of Shreveport, is in piney woods just south of the Arkansas state line. Many people work in the oil or timber industries. In the old downtown, shops line streets near the antebellum Claiborne Parish courthouse on the town square.

The easygoing climate, blacks say, masked police harassment.

The black community has focused its anger on Police Chief Russell Mills, who is white. They say he’s directed a policy of harassment toward them.

The FBI and State Police said they received no complaints about Homer police before the shooting.

Mills declined interview requests, saying he retained a lawyer and feared losing his job.

Hours before Friday’s scheduled rally, music blared from Azzie Olds’ home, where the 53-year-old schoolteacher and her neighbors enjoyed a cookout. Olds, who is black, said she expected a peaceful march despite the anger many were feeling.

“You’ve got a lot of people upset about what happened, not just the black folks,” Olds said. “I hope the national attention can help the town realize that something really needs to be done about the situation.”

Elsewhere in Homer, some white residents expressed concern that Sharpton’s visit could enflame tensions.

“I just hope everybody behaves and don’t use it as an excuse to start trouble,” said Vanessa Efferson, 49, whose bookstore is one of the shops ringing the courthouse.

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King Family Takes $800K Bounty From Monument

Posted Apr 20th 2009 8:00AM by Carmen Dixon
Filed under: BlackSpin, Martin Luther King Jr., News

Now I’m not against anybody making a living. I will tell you that how you make money is important. And sometimes easy money is not good money.

Sometimes you have to sit quietly, talk it out with your higher power and walk away from dinero that’s sure to leave a bad taste in your mouth. So it is from that perspective that I am calling out the heirs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for taking more than $800,000 from the memorial fund.

WASHINGTON – The family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has charged the foundation building a monument to the civil rights leader on the National Mall about $800,000 for the use of his words and image — an arrangement one leading scholar says King would have found offensive.

The memorial — including a 28-foot sculpture depicting King emerging from a chunk of granite — is being paid for almost entirely with private money in a fundraising campaign led by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. It will be turned over to the National Park Service once it is complete.

The foundation has been paying the King family for the use of his words and image in its fundraising materials. The family has not charged for the use of King’s likeness in the monument itself.

Source – MSNBC.com, King family draws fees from memorial project Scholar: Civil rights leader would have been ‘scandalized’ by payments

Healthy Hair Tip – Sesame Oil for Sun Protection!

The new spring weather means abandoning those thick wool hats and letting our hair blow in the breeze. However, even though the weather is mild and the sun doesn’t seem very intense, UV rays can still damage our fragile tresses.

For light sun protection, try Sesame Oil. It’s perfect for low to moderate sun exposure. Plus, its cheap and easy to find at any grocery store.

Sesame oil has been used for centuries as a natural hair conditioner and sunscreen. It can block up to 30% of the sun’s harmful rays and will act as a protective barrier between the unforgiving wind and our fragile strands.  Apply a dime size amount to dry hair daily, concentrating on the ends, before heading outdoors.

If you need additional sun protection or plan to spend a significant amount of time outdoors, there are dozens of products that can help. L’Oreal, Sunsilk, Phyto, Rene Furterer, Kerastase and Ojon all make a wide range of products that contain SPF.

My personal favorites are Phyto Plage Sun Veil or Rene Furterer Summer Fluid or Summer Oil as they help condition the hair and add a nice long lasting shine.

I hope this helps! For more tips and techniques, you can find me at www.healthytextures.com.

Found – And Lost: 1786 Slaves’ Freedom Site Discovered, Now Doomed by Developer

Yonkers, NY (BlackNews.com) – Black history is again bittersweet in this old Hudson River city.

On May 1, 1786, seventy-six years before the Emancipation Proclamation, the very first liberation law of its kind in America was passed.

It freed a tiny number of slaves in an act of freedom of earth-shattering importance.

Now, a further startling discovery has been made:

The last piece of the long-lost formal lawn and garden where these slaves actually toiled – and then walked in freedom – has been found.

Also discovered have been the names of the slaves themselves.

Slaves Tom, Mary, Betty, Caesar, Wall, and Cato unknowingly blazed the trail of liberty for the millions more of their fellow African-Americans remaining in bondage into the next century.

These Yonkers slaves belonged to the richest man and woman in old New York.

The lawn they walked, both in slavery and in freedom, was trod by George Washington, John Jay, and other founding fathers of America. It was the actual entrance to the Philipse Manor Hall, and was an epicenter of both white and African-American life in the New York City area.

The house in which the slaves slept – in the attic rafters – was named a National Treasure by President Clinton.

And the thirteen old buildings ringing the old “liberation lawn,” now a vacant overgrown lot, were recently landmarked.

The land’s lure to fugitive slaves escaping to freedom, continued in the nineteenth century. It became an island of freedom, surrounded by a sea of slavery. Quakers owned local property, and the Underground Railroad operated here.

Documentation has been discovered that in 1859 – on the very site of Tom and Mary’s legacy – the first Baptist church in Yonkers collected money for “securing the liberation of a brother and two sisters from slavery.”

But as the anniversary of Tom and Mary’s freedom approaches, a developer is on track to obliterate this sacred land. The soil will be hauled away, including its archaeological contents, the pit filled with concrete footings, and a garage and high-rise glass condo will rise. Study of old maps shows numerous parts of the lot have never been built upon, since Indian times.

No other place in the United States has been found combining these documented roles in slavery and freedom spanning three centuries, including slaves freed by this first such law in America, with their names.

Hidden in plain sight, in the fourth-largest city in New York, is this proud legacy of the African-American culture that literally built Yonkers, reaching back over three centuries.

A member of the Historical Society remarked, “It took 223 years to rediscover this ‘ground zero’ of African-American freedom. But the ‘Liberation Lawn’ is once again captive – no longer by a slave master, but by a developer and the City. Tom and Mary’s freedom site – the first of its kind in America – probably will not be here on May 1, 2010, for its 224th birthday.”

Yonkers “planning” officials press ahead for decimation of the small piece of land. Few other places in Yonkers, indeed in America, recognize the presence of African-Americans.

Urgent action is needed now, to again free the Liberation Lawn, this time from the City of Yonkers, for the people of America. In the meantime, happy 223rd birthday.
An article on the discovery of the “Liberation Lawn,” documented with footnotes and illustrations, in the current Yonkers Historical Society Bulletin, gladly furnished upon request. Previous research on the proprietor of a proximate historic property led to his inclusion in a current four-year White House Historical Association – Smithsonian Institution exhibit.

CONTACT:
Bernice Odesser
914-476-8500
info@cohascodpc.com

Nortrud Wolfe Spero
Yonkers Historical Society
914-968-7862
nortrud.spero@verizon.net

The Clark Sisters still Riding High on Sucess

Acclaimed gospel quartet The Clark Sisters are still riding off the success of their latest CD, ‘Live: One Last Time.’

After winning their first three Grammy Awards in 2008 for the Donald Lawrence-produced CD, the singing sisters have apparently decided to record new music for EMI Gospel, including a forthcoming Christmas CD later this year.

Karen Clark Sheard, Dorinda Clark Cole, Jacky Clark Chisholm and Elbertina “Twinkie” Clark will announce later this week that they have inked a new deal with EMI Gospel via a partnership with an upstart label launched by Sheard called Karew Records.

Pronounced KA-RUE, the label is apparently a hybrid of Sheard and her husband, Pastor J. Drew Sheard, Sr.’s names.

Sheard is president of the label and her husband is a partner as well. Their son, producer J. Drew Sheard will work in an A&R capacity for the imprint.

In addition to the upcoming holiday recording by The Clark Sisters, Sheard will also release a long awaited follow-up to her 2006 solo release ‘It’s Not Over’ on the label this fall.

The Clark Sisters will also record a new CD as a collective that is tentatively slated for 2010.

There’s early buzz that the other three sisters will also eventually record and release solo offerings via Karew/EMI Gospel as well.

Sheard’s daughter, Kierra “KiKi” Sheard will continue to record directly for EMI Gospel.

The long-term deal between EMI Gospel and Karew Records will allow the Detroit-bred sisters to own their masters.

Best known for hits like ‘You Brought The Sunshine,’ ‘Miracle’ and ‘Is My Living In Vein,’ The Clark Sisters were recently featured on the TV One series, ‘Unsung,’ which showcases popular recording artists that didn’t meet their full professional potential for various reasons.

The group will perform two songs as the special birthday guests of ‘The View’ co-host Sherri Shepherd during the ABC talk show’s live broadcast on April 22.

A rep for EMI Gospel was unavailable to comment at press time

Mo’Nique’s Coming to Late Night

Fans of Mo’Nique who fretted over her departure from radio may just be in luck. Word is that BET is offering a new late-night show to advertisers next week that will be hosted by the “Queen of Comedy” and called “Breakin’ Up With Mo’Nique,” according to the Los Angeles Times

Rappers Tone Down Sparkle But Not Swagger

By DIONNE WALKER
Associated Press Writer
Rappers who have continued to flaunt their riches have received criticism. Fans bristled earlier this year after West unveiled a line of $400-plus sneakers he crafted with Louis Vuitton.

ATLANTA (AP) — The hip-hop world is a less bling-bling place these days.

The music genre has been defined as much by diamond-encrusted watches and platinum chains as its gritty urban lyrics. But in the last couple of years, it has scaled down its flash, a trend insiders say has become more pronounced during the recent recession.

Make no mistake: The industry that made an urban household name out of New York’s Jacob “Jacob the Jeweler” Arabov me isn’t entirely reversing course. (Case in point – Lil Wayne’s “A Milli,” one of last year’s biggest songs, which had the rapper bragging wildly about being a “young millionaire.”)

But “the day of conspicuous consumption is gone,” says Tamara Connor, an Atlanta-based stylist who has created looks for chart-topping rappers, including Lil Wayne.

“We’re still going to see some bling, but it’s just not going to be as much,” Connor says. “Instead of four diamond necklaces, it might just be a diamond bracelet – and it’s a piece the celebrity wears all the time. They’re not changing their jewelry out everyday.”

Photo shoots, for example, are being done with fewer of the specialized medallions considered a calling card for the likes of Rick Ross, whose chain with a likeness of his head – complete with black diamond beard – has an estimated value of $30,000.

Instead you might see a rapper in an off-the-shelf diamond cross or wearing lower-quality stones. “You can save $3,000 a carat if you do non-ring quality diamonds for studs (earrings),” Connor notes.

Ben Baller, head of Los Angeles-based jeweler I.F. & Co., says the shift is most pronounced among up-and-coming rappers, for whom a steady income is seeming like less of a sure thing. Rap sales have declined along with the rest of the music industry.

Before, a new artist might spend $25,000 of a $30,000 advance on a chain, according to Baller, who counts Fat Joe as a client.

“Now they would rather try to spend $5,000 and $6,000,” he says, adding, “they’re willing to talk about options by using sapphires, using very, very low quality gold.

“Some people (are) even wanting to mix diamonds with cubics (cubic zirconia) so it would not be completely ungenuine.”

Cost cutting is major for the industry in which the carat-weight of one’s ring could carry more cache than record sales. Ostentatious fashion has been in hip-hop’s DNA since Slick Rick donned layers of opulent gold chains in the ’80s.

The flash reflected the music style born of the streets of New York, its stars often hard-knock kids who christened their new success with thick rope chains and designer sweatsuits.

While over-the-top bling didn’t represent all of rap fashion – gritty gang looks, Afrocentric garb and even preppy styles have all been adopted and embraced as part of rap style at some point – in the late 1990s and the early part of this decade, bling seemed to have reached its apex, complete with gold and diamond pimp cups and diamond grills for the teeth. (In fact, its around that time the term bling was born.)

“It was about creating a signature,” according to Memsor Kamarake, fashion director of Vibe magazine.

But in recent years, rap kings like Jay-Z and Diddy have displayed their swagger with looks that were more boardroom than bling, with button-down shirts and designer suits.

Though Young Jeezy may still sport a huge chain at times, flashy jewelry is not integral to his image.

“He’ll wear a scarf and no jewelry, maybe a bracelet, with a baseball hat, a T-shirt and a pair of jeans – that’s not a lot of bling,” says Connor, who has also styled the Georgia artist.

Rappers aren’t giving up glamour altogether, they’re just not wearing it 24-7. In the past, several chains were de rigueur for a grocery-store run, now they’re reserved for a show or nightclub, says Baller, who also is seeing more artists trading in old chains instead of buying new ones.

And rapper T.I. has the A.K.O.O. clothing line, which features military-inspired woven shirts, polos and denim, with most items ranging from $44 to about $200. Ralph Reynolds, who is A.K.O.O.’s creative director, said the clothing label reflects a more price-conscious customer in hip-hop.

“Some of those same people who would reach and stretch and do everything they could to get that Louis (Vuitton) will now say, ‘I already have these two bags, let me pay the rent,'” Reynolds says.

Even Kimora Lee Simmons, the Baby Phat designer known for her extravagant lifestyle, toned down the glitter in her most recent collection.

“Fabulosity is not – the girls are seeing – that $5,000 pair of shoes,” she says.

Chris Brown Pleads Not Guilty

The case of the People versus Chris Brown continues. The musician pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday to two felony counts – assault and making criminal threats – in the alleged Feb. 8 beating of his girlfriend Rihanna

Geithner Hints at High Bar In Letting Banks Repay Aid

By David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that the “ultimate test” for determining which banks can repay government bailout money is whether the entire financial system is capable of offering enough credit to revive the economy.

Geithner’s remarks indicate that regulators will require banks to meet high standards to get out from under the government’s thumb. Industry and federal officials are bracing for a showdown over this issue beginning Friday when the chief financial officers of 19 of the nation’s major banks will be summoned to the Federal Reserve and told the results of the government’s “stress tests.”

This federal initiative is examining whether the firms have enough capital to continue lending if the economy significantly worsens. Senior administration officials say the tests may show that some banks need to raise more money or take additional government aid.

But the banks say federal bailout money, which requires firms to restrict executive pay and submit to other limits, now carries a stigma. Several of the firms, such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have been lobbying the government to be released from the bailout and have taken steps to repay the money.

Geithner said his primary responsibility is to consider the well-being of the entire financial system, rather than the health of individual companies. The federal government can reject requests from banks that want to repay the money.

“The critical thing we care about is whether the system, as a whole, is in a position where it has the capacity to support the credit that recovery requires,” he said, making his first appearance before a congressional oversight panel on the government’s financial-rescue program. “That’s the ultimate test.”

Geithner added that he sees signs of “thawing” in the credit markets and that most banks have more capital than they need. Some market analysts said those comments sparked yesterday’s rally in stocks, which had been trading in negative territory before the hearing began. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day 1.6 percent higher, while the Standard and Poor’s 500-stock index, a broader measure, jumped 2.1 percent.

“Currently, the vast majority of banks have more capital than they need to be considered well capitalized by their regulators,” Geithner said in his testimony.

Still, even among the positive signs, there are “significant declines” in commercial lending and some consumer loans, such as credit cards, and the cost of borrowing money remains high, he said.

Highlighting these continuing risks to the financial system, the International Monetary Fund yesterday predicted that U.S. financial institutions could lose $2.7 trillion by the time the global credit crisis ends.

Geithner added that the stress tests are looking at not just the overall level of capital, but the type of capital on banks’ balance sheets. Of particular concern is whether banks have enough “tangible common equity,” a kind of capital that can be raised by selling more stock. These funds are the best cushion for cash-strapped banks in crisis.

In a letter to the oversight panel’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Warren, Geithner said that $109.6 billion remains in bailout funds. The Treasury Department has conservatively estimated that firms will repay another $25 billion in the short term. J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs combined have received $35 billion in bailout funds.

Some federal officials have said that the government needs such repayments in order to have enough financial firepower to see the nation through the crisis.

“We would welcome it,” Geithner said of the repayments. “It helps show progress, it helps underscore the basic points that the institutions of our financial system are in very different circumstances.”

But he warned that “the basic objective that’s guiding what we do is to make sure the system is working as a whole.”

Black-Owned Firm Selected As One of the Leading Credit & Debt Professionals of the Eastern United States

Southfield, MI (BlackNews.com) – Choice Credit Group LLC, a leading provider of debt settlement, business credit, and personal credit restoration services, today announced that it has been selected by Goldline Research as one of leading Credit & Debt Professionals of the Eastern United States for 2009. The list of leading Credit & Debt Professionals of the Eastern United States is scheduled to be published in the April 27th issue of Forbes Magazine.

CEO, Lesley Wilson, is thrilled about the announcement of being in such a prestigious magazine. She wants individuals to know that Choice Credit Group is staffed with knowledgeable specialists eager to assist you with your financial needs. Just take the first step and they will do the rest.

“Those selected provide extensive client service that exceeds the industry standard,” said Dana Mahoney, Analyst, Goldline Research. “We believe that they are setting the benchmarks for the industry as a whole.”

Goldline Research conducted its annual evaluation of Credit & Debt Professionals of the Eastern United States from January 2009 to March 2009. During the research process, Goldline Research identified more than 3,300 credit and debt firms in the region.
About Choice Credit Group LLC
Choice Credit Group is a full-service credit organization. Their mission is to help individuals resolve their credit and money issues through providing premier services and education in debt settlement, business credit, and personal credit restoration.

About Goldline Research
Goldline Research (www.goldlineresearch.com) is an independent market research firm that specializes in evaluating professional services providers to help consumers identify and select leading services firms. Goldline Research’s proprietary research process includes market analysis, individual company interviews and, in many industries, interviews with consumers of those services to gain feedback on market conditions and provider service levels. Goldline Research’s lists have been published in leading publications including local, regional and national magazines.
CONTACT:
Choice Credit Group LLC
248-334-1350
www.ChoiceCreditGroup.com

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