First Amendment Case at Small Black College?
The chairwoman of the Communications Department at Edward Waters College, a small historically black school in Jacksonville, Fla., has been fired along with four other administrators in developments that involve a popular journalism student said to have altered her transcript and another journalism student who was shot and killed on the campus.
“Jayme Bradford, chairwoman of the Communications Department, said the college gave no reason for her firing Friday, but it came after several clashes with administrators,” as Beth Komanik and David Decamp wrote last week in Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union.
“In one incident, Bradford protested when a popular student leader was allowed to participate in graduation last month despite admitting she removed several failing grades from her transcript and was supposed to serve a yearlong suspension.
“At least four of the five administrators fired were involved in that incident,” they wrote.
Bradford is a former Times-Union reporter who has been student representative to the board of the National Association of Black Journalists, advised the college NABJ chapter and last year participated in a fellowship at the San Antonio Express-News sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
One of her students this year was Johnathan Glenn, a freshman who was killed April 29 across the street from campus dorms. His parents are now suing the college over safety concerns.
Bradford recalled to Journal-isms today how Glenn, who was opinions editor for the online publication the school started as it “battled” to start a student newspaper, wrote a story on campus security.
She and several students had gone to the hospital after Glenn was shot. After Glenn was pronounced dead, prompting a night of emotional distress, she said, Glenn’s story showed up in her e-mail box the next morning. “The first thing I see is Johnathan’s e-mail. It was almost like he had a premonition,” she said.
Bradford said she forwarded the e-mail to others, but then the school deleted the e-mail and shut down the Internet on campus.
However, she had made a copy and gave printed versions to students who asked. Eventually, Glenn’s words ended up in the local news media.
“Bradford said she believes the campus also is punishing her for releasing an essay written by a student killed across the street from campus dorms,” the Times-Union reported.
Michael Freed, a Jacksonville lawyer who is representing the school, had a different take on the incident. “This was not anything written for any publication. This was work submitted for a grade,” he told Journal-isms. “Publicizing a student work or any personal information of a student is a violation of the law,” he said. “That was an inappropriate thing to do.”
“Vice President of Academic Affairs Alan Sheppard and Psychology Department Chairwoman Patricia Whittingham did not return messages to their cell phones. Dudley Gill, dean of professional programs and human services, also did not return phone messages,” the Times-Union wrote.
“I wanted to share his life’s words, and he became an involuntary martyr for his cause,” Bradford said in the piece. “I hope we learn from it. His tenure there was brief but it was very memorable, and we should learn from this experience.”
“Bradford said the college denied her request to attend Glenn’s funeral as a chaperone to a group of students from EWC, even though Glenn ‘was like a son to me.'”
Bradford said her lawyers are meeting with those representing the administration.
Ralph Wiley “Was Truly Loved”
Filmmaker Spike Lee and Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon, paired with Ralph Wiley’s son, Colen Wiley, were among those who spoke before about 375 people Saturday in Washington’s National Presbyterian Church at funeral services for Wiley, the author and sportswriter.
“This man was truly loved. His impact on the sports world and on black writers was obvious,” said an observer who didn’t know Wiley but was at the church. “The vibes were great in that room.” Lee told the mourners that Wiley had just finished his part of a project they were working on, and kept his remarks brief. Among those present was famed Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson.
- Jerry Brewer, Orlando Sentinel: Wiley enlightens to end
- William Jelani Cobb, africa.com: What Black People Should Know By Now
- George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel: No words fitting to describe Wiley’s career
Pistons Stop Teens From Selling Free Press T-Shirts
“Teenagers selling T-shirts bearing an image of the Detroit Free Press’ Pistons championship front page were accosted before the team’s victory parade Thursday by Pistons officials who said they could not sell images of the league,” Nancy A. Youssef reports in the Free Press.
“Herschel Fink, the Free Press’ attorney, said the newspaper is sending a letter to the NBA telling the organization that ‘harassing our kids is illegal, improper and could lead to damages.’
“At issue is whether the First Amendment protects newspapers when they print on something other than paper.”
In another development, “A joke made at the expense of the city of Detroit and the NBA Championship-winning Pistons has landed Chicago’s No. 1 sportscaster in trouble with his bosses,” Robert Feder reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Commenting on the Pistons’ victory, Mark Giangreco showed an old black-and-white movie clip of a city being burned to the ground and joked that it was just another typical night for Detroit. He followed that immediately by saying that he was “just kidding,” Feder reported.
“Among complaints received by the ABC-owned station were some from viewers who perceived that the joke had racial overtones,” Feder wrote.
Giangreco was to begin serving a one-week suspension without pay today.
Chicago Defender in “Painful” Period
“A year and a half after a new ownership group took over, the [Chicago] Defender is going through a particularly painful period. Sixteen positions have been eliminated since the new owners arrived, leaving behind a staff of 30,” Rob Kaiser writes in the Chicago Tribune.
“A controversy erupted after a white reporter initially replaced” longtime reporter Chinta Strausberg. “And the newspaper’s publisher, David Milliner, was recently ousted — an event the Defender only briefly noted in a story about Milliner winning a ‘father of the year’ award.
“Much of the recent shakeup is tied to the arrival of Clarence Nixon, a turnaround specialist who became chief executive of the Defender’s parent company, Real Times Inc., in April.
“Nixon said the Defender must become a more efficient operation and offer readers insightful analysis of issues critical to the African-American community, particularly education, crime and the economy.”
“The Defender expects to soon hire a new editor, a role that former publisher Milliner held until early this year. The new editor is expected to set a new direction for the paper’s coverage.”
As reported May 24, “The company that last year bought the Chicago Defender, Michigan Chronicle, New Pittsburgh Courier, Memphis Tri-State Defender and Michigan Front Page has hired Angelo Henderson, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1999 while at the Wall Street Journal, to help upgrade the African American newspapers.”
Newsletter for Latino Writers Marks Anniversary
Latinidad, a free e-mail newsletter designed to connect Latino writers to the agents and editors interested in publishing them, marks its first anniversary in July.
“During the seven years I was an editor at Simon & Schuster, the question I was asked most often by agents was, ‘How do I find Latino writers?’ I discovered an industry-wide need to connect Latino writers to agents and editors, so I created the Latinidad newsletter to serve that need,” said Marcela Landres in a news release.
The current issue of Latinidad is at http://www.marcelalandres.com/; click on “Newsletter.”
Newspapers Diverge Over Suicide vs. Lynching
“When Roy Veal was found hanging from a tree in Woodville, Miss., in April, for many black Mississippians, it became a tale of two headlines,” writes James Varney in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Sunday.
“‘Wilkinson County, Mississippi Lynching Called Another “Suicide” by state and county authorities,’ said the headline in the Jackson Advocate.”
“The Mississippi Link offered the official view: ‘Source: Wilkinson County hanging was a suicide.’
“The Advocate, the state’s oldest African-American newspaper, bills itself as ‘the voice of black Mississippians since 1938.’ The Link, a relative newcomer to the field, proclaims itself, ‘keeper of the knowledge for people who speak the truth since 1993.’
“The divergent views expressed in the headlines are mirrored on the Internet where myriad Web sites, particularly those catering to a black audience, have posted stories about the Veal case.
“While mainstream African-American columnists at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Chicago Sun-Times urged a cautious response, most of Mississippi’s black press seems predisposed to think the Woodville hanging — and three others similar to it — marks a revival of the state’s sad tradition of racist lynching.”
A separate piece examines the death.
The real story, others have said, is the issue of land title loss by African Americans in Mississippi.
“Roy Veal was a familiar figure in the Wilkinson County clerk of courts office, researching a lawsuit to defend his family’s land, when turkey hunters in April found the 55-year-old hanging from a massive pecan tree,” the story notes.
Cosby to Be Part of Chicago Town Meeting
Columnists continue to write about Bill Cosby’s remarks more than a month after the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, in which Cosby criticized the values of some lower-class African Americans.
But Dawn Turner Trice had news at the end of her column on the topic in today’s Chicago Tribune:
“To further the discussion, Cosby will take part in a town-hall meeting July 1 at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., Chicago. He told me he’ll be there early, from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.,” Trice wrote.
Meanwhile, Stanley Crouch railed in the New York Daily News against Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin awarding the key to the city to the rapper Ludacris.
“This is another black first. I cannot imagine a vile performer like Marilyn Manson ever being given the key to the city by a white mayor, no matter how much money he had given away,” Crouch wrote.
Ebonics, English are both facts of American life (Sylvester Brown Jr., St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
African-American community should listen to ‘Cos’ , Oscar Eason Jr., president of the NAACP State Conference, Seattle Times
Wanted: Leaders to help folks get out of poverty, Joy-Ann Reid, Miami Herald
Santana Decries “Racist” Inattention to Elvin Jones
Legendary Latin-rock musician Carlos Santana “sounded uncharacteristically angry during a discussion about the recent death of one of his musical heroes, jazz drum icon Elvin Jones, who died May 18 of heart failure,” George Varga wrote May 30 in California’s San Diego Union-Tribune, in comments that have created buzz in a number of quarters.
“I’m really embarrassed for this nation, and for MTV and VH1 and Rolling Stone, because it was a very racist thing not to acknowledge this most important musician when he passed,’ said Santana, whose 1999 album, ‘Supernatural,’ won nine Grammys and has sold more than 25 million copies,” Varga wrote.
“For them to (play up) Ozzy Osbourne and other corny-ass white people, but not Elvin, is demeaning and I’m really embarrassed to live in this country.”
“Santana’s anger, embarrassment and frustration is in direct proportion to the number of people not being exposed to greatness because of the U.S. music media’s cultural bias,” John Paul wrote in a letter to the editor published Sunday. “In 1979, I worked with Santana on the art for his solo album, ‘Oneness, Silver Dreams, Golden Reality,'” Paul said by way of identification.
Cloves Campbell, Arizona Publisher, Dies at 73
“Cloves Campbell Sr., for decades one of the strongest voices in the state’s Black community and co-owner of the state’s oldest Black newspaper, died Friday after a heart attack in the place he loved most: the offices of the Arizona Informant,” the Arizona Republic reports. He was 73.
“He was definitely where he wanted to be,” said his son, Cloves Campbell Jr, the newspaper’s publisher, in the obituary. “He lost his sight to diabetes 10 years ago. He got up every morning at 6:30, had breakfast and then a secretary would come pick him up and take him to the office.”
“For much of his life, Campbell was an advocate for improving the quality of life in segregated neighborhoods and was a champion for the accomplishments of minorities,” continued the obituary, by Emily Bittner and Connie Cone Sexton.
“Lauded as one of the state’s greatest and most powerful Black leaders, Campbell overcame poverty and segregation, eventually becoming the first African-American in the Arizona Senate. He took office in 1966, after serving four years in the House.
“The Informant built its reputation by focusing on local people doing real things, Campbell told The Republic in 1998.
“His father’s mission was to tell the good news about his community, especially to show high school sports heroes and valedictorians succeeding,” Campbell Jr. told the newspaper.
Aggrey Klaaste, Anti-Apartheid Editor, Dead at 64
“Aggrey Klaaste, a veteran anti-apartheid journalist, died Saturday in Johannesburg. He was 64,” the Associated Press reports.
“Klaaste, the editor of South Africa’s leading black daily newspaper, the Sowetan, from 1988 to 2002, died of a lung infection, his family said.
“President Thabo Mbeki said Klaaste’s ‘brave stand against the tyranny of apartheid in the days of repression of blacks’ was an inspiration.
“Klaaste ‘represented the established reality of black intellectual achievement, many years before the arrival of the democracy for which he struggled,’ Mbeki said in a statement.
Henry Jeffreys, chairman of the South African National Editors’ Forum, said Klaaste came from a proud class of black journalists who knew what the term “reporting under fire” meant, iafrica.com reported.
In 1977 he was arrested along with The World editor at the time, Percy Qoboza. Klaaste spent nine months in jail, iafrica.com said.
It is Qoboza for whom the National Association of Black Journalists named its international award.
Judge Nixes Hip-Hop “Kool Mixx” Ad Campaign
“A judge yesterday ordered Brown & Williamson Tobacco to curb an ad campaign and recall 79,000 cartons of Kool cigarettes after the New York attorney general complained that the company singled out children as customers,” Bloomberg News reported Friday.
“Justice Charles E. Ramos of State Supreme Court in Manhattan signed a temporary restraining order restricting the ‘Kool Mixx’ campaign, which focused on hip-hop culture and music, and ordering the recall of “special-edition thematic packs of cigarettes” connected with the ads, the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said in a statement.”
To the Man Who Integrated the Party
Publishers who pass on don’t often get such tributes from their metro columnists. But at Mississippi’s Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Eric Stringfellow noted the social skills of William W. “Bill” Hunsberger, who died at 55 on June 13.
“I’ll never forget Bill’s first July 4 during his second tour in Jackson. His family was out of town, so I invited him to go with me to a party.
“Although Bill integrated the party, it was clear to everyone that he looked and acted as if he belonged. That was Bill.”
