Monday, February 20, 2017

The controversial man behind blacksfortrump2020.com

If you saw video of Trump's 02/18/2017 "love me please" rally then you have seen strategically placed black people holding signs that read Black for Trump 2020. In his desperation to show that African Americans like and support him, Donald Trump has associated himself with a man who was a cult member, small time criminal, and may have been involved in a murder.

The mastermind behind those signs is "Michael the Black Man, " and he is no role model.

From the Miami News Times:

Michael the Black Man, also known as Maurice Woodside or Michael Symonette, who has made waves in Miami in recent years with protests against the Democratic Party and rallies for the GOP.

He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades.

Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen.

In the years that followed, he changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami and then re-invented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama.

Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases.

10 Years in Jail and Still No Trial for Murder Suspect


Kharon Davis has spent nearly 10 years in jail. He’s had four sets of attorneys, with two judges on the bench. His co-defendants’ cases have wrapped up. Davis has appeared in court for several hearings, and a new prosecutor is assigned.

But Davis has had no trial. There’s been no jury, no verdict, no conviction. Police say he killed a man in a drug deal gone wrong, but he hasn’t had his day in court. He’s charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty. Trial dates have come and gone, and it’s now scheduled for September. By then, 10 years and three months will have passed since the crime.

The Constitution guarantees suspects “the right to a speedy trial.” Capital cases often take a year or longer to get to trial, but 10 years is rare — experts call it shocking and say it could be unconstitutional. Prisoner advocates and court-watchers say such delays take an exhaustive toll on suspects stuck behind bars and on victims’ families, who are robbed of closure that can come from trials.

Davis’ mother says her son is innocent but hasn’t had the chance to prove it in court, and his health is suffering because of the long stretch in jail.

“It’s like they snatched up my child, put him in a cage and threw away the key,” Chrycynthia Ward Davis said.

Read more: 10 Years in Jail and Still No Trial for Murder Suspect


Sunday, February 19, 2017

Black History Month: Clarence Sumner Greene, first black neurosurgeon

Before there was Ben Carson, there was Clarence Sumner Greene.

In 1936, Greene received his medical degree from the Howard University College of Medicine. He spent seven years training in general surgery and received certification from the American Board of Surgery. After serving for four years as a professor of surgery at Howard University, Dr. Greene trained in neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Dr. Greene became the first black neurologist on October 22, 1953, when he was certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery. He returned to Howard University, where he served as chair of neurosurgery until his sudden death in 1957.

Flint water crisis: Report says 'systemic racism' played role

A government-appointed civil rights commission in Michigan says systemic racism helped to cause the Flint water crisis, according to a report released Friday.

The 129-page report does not claim there were any specific violations of state civil rights laws, but says "historical, structural and systemic racism combined with implicit bias" played a role in the problems, which still linger in the city's drinking water almost three years later.

"The presence of racial bias in the Flint water crisis isn't much of a surprise to those of us who live here, but the Michigan Civil Rights Commission's affirmation that the emergency manager law disproportionately hurts communities of color is an important reminder of just how bad the policy is," state Sen. Jim Ananich, a Democrat from Flint, said.

It was an emergency manager, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, who had the cash-strapped city's water supply changed from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014 -- a decision reversed more than a year later amid reports of corroded pipes and elevated blood lead levels.

The report, which was released after a year-long investigation that followed three public hearings and took testimony from more than 150 residents and officials, says: "The people of Flint have been subjected to unprecedented harm and hardship, much of it caused by structural and systemic discrimination and racism that have corroded your city, your institutions, and your water pipes, for generations."

Read more: Flint water crisis: Report says 'systemic racism' played role

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Read the Congressional Black Caucus letter to Donald Trump

Donald Trump lied about the Congressional Black Caucus not reaching out to him during his epic rant/meltdown at a press conference on February 16, 2017. He asked American Urban Reports reporter April Ryan if she could set up a meeting with the CBC since they had not reached out to him. Problem is that the CBC sent him a letter on 01/19/2017. Read that letter below.

Congressional Black Caucus Letter to POTUS on New Deal by George L. Cook III on Scribd