1675 Statute Bars Indians from Boston
“Boston is a finalist for hosting a big convention for minority journalists, but a 1675 law requiring the arrest of Native Americans who enter Boston could prevent the city from winning the bid,” Keith Reed reported today in the Boston Globe.
“Officials in City Hall and at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority met yesterday with the executive director of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc. to discuss repealing the state law, which has remained on the books despite being widely considered unconstitutional.
“Its continued presence has sparked ire among some within the journalists’ group, which represents Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans working in the news media.
“‘Our board members are very sensitive to each other, and we want to make sure that no one group is offended or feels excluded,’ said Unity’s executive director, Anna M. Lopez.
“Now the convention authority, the city, and at least two state legislators want the law repealed before it can scuttle Boston’s chances of hosting Unity’s 2008 meeting, which could bring millions in revenue and 8,000 to 10,000 minority journalists. Convention planners also hope to show the visitors that Boston is a diverse and welcoming city,” Reed wrote.
The Unity board eliminated Houston as a contender and named Boston, Washington and Chicago, as finalists for the 2008 convention.
“. . . State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, Democrat of Boston, said she will introduce a measure to repeal the 1675 law in the Senate, while Representative Byron Rushing, also a Boston Democrat, will bring the issue before the House,” Reed’s story continued.
“Wilkerson said yesterday that the bill could be passed in a week, but there’s no guarantee it would be done that fast. ‘It would be our goal to have it done immediately,’ she said. ‘After all the work that people have done on this pitch, we would not sit by and allow something like this [to] be the thing that kept us from being the winning bid.’
“The ban on Indians entering Boston has been on the books since 1675. Two legislators are introducing bills to repeal it, as the city requested.”
The law reads:
“We find that still there still remains ground of Fear, that unless more effectual Care be taken, we may be exposed to mischief by some of that Barbarous Crew, or any Strangers not of our Nation, by their coming into, or residing in the Town of Boston. . . . Secondly, That there be a Guard appointed at the end of the said Town towards Roxbury, to hinder the coming in of any Indian, until Application be first made to the Governor, or Council if fitting, and to be . . . remanded back with the same Guard, not to be suffered to lodge in Town, unless in Prison.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Sensitivities Play Part in Choice of Cities
The four journalist of color organizations that make up Unity take sensitivities to their own ethnic groups into consideration when they choose convention sites.
The National Association of Black Journalists includes on its list of criteria: “Willingness to contribute to NABJ or other black organizations,” “History with black employment and relations” and “Local black community support.”
In 1990, NABJ voted not to hold its board meeting in Phoenix because Arizona did not recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Arizona residents voted in 1992 to support the holiday, and NABJ held its 25th anniversary convention in Phoenix in 2000.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has no formal criteria, officials said, but the organization in 1994 canceled plans to meet in San Diego after Californians passed Proposition 187, which denied such social services as education and health benefits to illegal immigrants, a move eventually overturned in the courts. Two years earlier, NAHJ moved its convention from Denver to support a boycott protesting a Colorado law that prohibited municipalities from adopting gay-rights measures. The Asian American Journalists Association followed NAHJ in 1995 by voting to “cease planning” for a 1998 national convention in California.
Appreciative of NAHJ’s support on Denver, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association voted to pull its 1995 convention from Los Angeles.
Among AAJA’s convention criteria, executive director Rene Astudillo told Journal-isms, are:
- “We look at how holding our convention in a city would help focus media attention on the local Asian American community and issues.
- “We look at how holding our convention in a city would build AAJA’s relationships with local Asian American communities and groups.
- “If there is a history or incidents of insensitivity by the city to Asian Americans and issues, we take that into serious consideration, not necessar[il]y by staying away from the city but making sure that we address those issues in our convention programming such as our Town Hall Meetings.”
The Native American Journalists Association does not “have specific criteria when it comes to sensitivity to Native people,” president Dan Lewerenz told Journal-isms. “Keep in mind, two of the three UNITY conventions have been in cities that have Indian sports nicknames/mascots – with Washington’s being particularly offensive to many Indians.”
But he added, “in considering the current UNITY finalists, Boston is kind of a unique case. I think in any community you can find evidence of sensitivity (or lack thereof) to Native people. But there are few places where a law banning Indians is still on the books. We know that the law would never be enforced in this day and age. But in my mind, the fact that the law has never been stricken from the books sends a message of indifference. It makes me uncomfortable, the same way NABJ might be uncomfortable going to a state that still had a law against interracial marriage.
“I am encouraged by city leaders’ efforts to get legislative action on the Indian law, and I certainly wish them luck. In my eyes, Boston will have a much stronger bid if that law is off the books.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
At White House, “I Said, Run! Leave Now! Run Now!”
April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, was in the press room today when “I saw some cameramen running up. I saw some move off the lawn. The Secret Service had their dogs out and guns drawn. I said, ‘Run! Leave now! Run now! I high-tailed it out of there.”
Ryan was describing the scene at the White House today after, as Scripps Howard News Service described it, “A single-engine plane breached restricted airspace over the capital and flew within three miles of the White House before veering west . . . forcing the evacuation of several government buildings and sending the nation’s capital into a tizzy.
“Two men were taken into custody after the plane they were flying, a Cessna-150, was forced down by a military escort at a small airport in Frederick, Md.” The violation appeared to be accidental, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said.
Ryan and CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux were among the journalists of color in the press room at the time, Ryan said. What upset Ryan was that it was she who alerted her colleagues. “People were mad. The senior staff were evacuated. They could have done something. All they had to do is open the door and say, ‘get out!’ I did not sign up to die for that job,” she said.
“A public address system installed after the Sept. 11 attacks to warn White House reporters about an emergency was not used . . . when the building was evacuated after a small plane flew into unrestricted air space over Washington, D.C., reporters told E&P,” Joe Strupp reported for Editor & Publisher.
From the transcript of the White House briefing today by press secretary Scott McClellan:
“Q Scott, why did the—why didn’t the internal emergency notification system go off here in the White House?
“MR. McCLELLAN: I think that there were—there was a notification system that was going off.
“Q No, it wasn’t.
“Q It’s called April Ryan. (Laughter.)
“Q Yes, thank you.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
New School for Campbell; 3 Exiting Hampton U.
Christopher P. Campbell, who has led journalism programs at historically black Xavier and Hampton universities and is now at Ithaca College in New York, starts July 1 as director of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi, the school and Campbell confirmed today.
Meanwhile, at Hampton University, where Campbell was replaced by broadcaster Tony Brown after his departure last year, at least three faculty members are leaving—and one is going to the same school as Campbell.
It is considered unusual for so many professors (including Campbell and Sean Lyons last year) to leave who had tenure or were on the tenure track. “That’s a very high turnover,” said veteran journalism professor Lawrence Kaggwa of Howard University, “to have five people in two years.” “It’s the combination of two people last year and three this,” agreed Robert Kreiser, senior program analyst at the American Association of University Professors. He called that “rather unusual” in academia.
Jennifer Wood told Journal-isms that she had accepted a position as an assistant professor in print journalism at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., starting in August.
“We’re also hoping she will help develop a professional track in our master’s program. We are very—very—excited about Jennifer joining us,” Dale Harrison, chair of Auburn’s Department of Communication & Journalism, told Journal-isms.
Wood was adviser to the student newspaper, the Script, when it was confiscated by the administration in 2003.
Kim LeDuff, who succeeded Wood briefly as adviser to the Script but gave it up after being denied permission to receive credit for the hours spent on the student newspaper, was hired at the University of Southern Mississippi before Campbell, Campbell said.
“She was hired because she was the most outstanding candidate we interviewed,” Elliott Pood, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the Hattiesburg campus, told Journal-isms. “She’s absolutely wonderful.” He said LeDuff would be teaching courses in broadcast journalism and broadcasting, and production courses in both programs.
Of LeDuff, Campbell said, “This is a great hire, and in my looking [at] this job, that demonstrated they are moving in a good direction.” He noted that 30 percent of the students are African American, that he had received his Ph.D. at the school and that he knew the senior faculty. “This is a diamond in the rough. It’s a really good program already. With some resources, it could be a great one,” he said.
The third professor, Curtis Holsopple, an assistant professor at Hampton teaching print and electronic journalism, told Journal-isms that:
“In late April 2005, I gave a letter of intent to the Hampton University administration indicating that I do not plan to return in the fall. I am grateful for the opportunities I have had at HU. I love Hampton University and my students in the Scripps Howard School, but any faculty member serves at the pleasure of the administration. In my case, it was clear that I no longer met the needs of those responsible for running the school. So I am pursuing other opportunities. I have given my sincere good wishes to Dean Brown and President [William] Harvey, both in writing and face to face, and I’m grateful to the Scripps Howard Foundation for their generous support of our educational efforts over the past half-dozen years.”
To help boost the number of African Americans in the journalism pipeline, Scripps Howard made a $10 million commitment to the university’s journalism program, including a new building.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
A Year Later, Cosby Comments Debated Anew
A year after Bill Cosby began commenting about some poor black parents not fulfilling the promise of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, columnists and commentators are debating them anew.
Some of the new discussion is due to publicity efforts for a new book by Michael Eric Dyson, “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind.”
But it is also because Cosby is likewise traveling the country to deliver his message, as he did Monday night in Dallas.
Some commentary:
- James T. Campbell, Houston Chronicle: Cosby’s critique irritated because it hit a raw nerve
- Ellis Cose, Newsweek: Criticizing Cosby
- Mark Davis, Dallas Morning News: Bill Cosby has a serious message for all parents
- Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News: Q&A with Michael Eric Dyson
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated columnist: Bill Cosby’s Image Problem
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: A new century, a new `color line’
- James Ragland, Dallas Morning News: It’s in Dallas’ hands, Cosby says
- L.A. Robinson, pajiba.com: Bill Cosby Was Right
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Apology, Diversity Training After Ebonics “Joke”
The publication of an April Fool’s Day letter in mock Ebonics at Drew University in Madison, N.J., has led to an apology from the student newspaper and sanctions from the school administration that include “educational and sensitivity diversity training” for the newspaper staff, school spokesman Tom Harris told Journal-isms today.
But Tamra Jenkins, house assistant at the Umoja House on campus, who participated in a teach-in prompted by that issue and others on Monday, was not optimistic that there would be change.
The teach-in was originally scheduled to be a protest, but the response was weak among the student body, 15 percent of which, Harris said, includes African Americans, Hispanics and other students of color. “It seems like no one really cares. The sentiment is, ‘we know nothing’s going to happen, so why even do anything?'” Jenkins told Journal-isms Monday.
The letter to the editor was headlined, “Afreecan Studiez be all up in my grillpiece bout divershizzle and izzle.”
It began:
“Ta Tha Edita:
“Cas ya d-i-d-to-that-n’t kno, we’s gots a nizzle majizzle hea at Drizzle. Afreecan Studiez, homie, but what really be tuggin’ ma nuts be dat they ain’t no Afreecans hea. I mean you all be heaing bout is diversizzle dis, diversizzle dat but I done don’t be see no thang done been done bout it, ya know m’saying? It be like havin’ one a dem thangs da ya wipe ya ass jus ta turn roun an smear it on some1’s grillpiece sumpn.”
Bruce Reynolds, the student newspaper adviser who lists 20 years’ experience as a newspaper reporter and editor, recommended five “resources” for the student newspaper staff, Geraldine Muir, associate dean of student life, told Journal-isms. They include a conference on race and ethnicity in education scheduled in New York City.
“There’s so much hurt around the issue. Some students are looking for action and others are trying to educate themselves, and others are just feeling the situation and dealing with their emotions,” Muir said. The newspaper staff printed its own apology, fired the author of the letter and has changed leadership, she said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Tom H. Kean steps down as president of the university next month, and Robert Weisbuch, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, assumes the post July 1. “He’s a strong proponent of diversity,” Harris said.
Controversy Over April Fool’s Day Joke At Drew University (CBS)
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
