Friday, June 14, 2019

Son of sheriff's deputy faces federal hate crime charges in Louisiana church fires

Federal hate crime charges have been filed against the son of a sheriff's deputy who was arrested in connection with a string of fires at three historically black churches in Louisiana, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Holden Matthews, 21, faces three counts of intentional damage to religious property, which constitute hate crimes under the Church Arson Prevention Act. He was also charged with three counts of using fire to commit a felony, the Justice Department said in a news release after the federal indictment was unsealed.

Holden Matthews, 21, was booked into the St. Landry Parish Jail on three counts of simple arson of a religious building.St. Landry Parish Sheriff Dept. The indictment says the fires were set "because of the religious character" of the properties.

The fires at the three churches, which were all started by gasoline and set from late March to early April, unnerved churchgoers in the St. Landry Parish region — conjuring up images of attacks on black churches in the South during the civil rights movement, and more recently, during the 1990s.

"Churches are vital places of worship and fellowship for our citizens and bind us together as a community," David Joseph, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, said in a statement. "Our freedom to safely congregate in these churches and exercise our religious beliefs must be jealously guarded. Today we are one step closer to justice for the parishioners of these churches and the St. Landry Parish communities affected by these acts."

Matthews already faced state charges in the church fires, including violating Louisiana's hate crime law. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

[SOURCE: NBC NEWS]

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Central Park 5 prosecutor leaves Columbia Law position

A prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will leave her post as a part-time lecturer at Columbia Law School amid controversy over her role in the wrongful conviction of five black and Latino teens, according to Bloomberg Law.

Elizabeth Lederer was one of two assistant district attorneys who prosecuted Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson and Korey Wise, the so-called “Central Park 5,” in the brutal 1989 assault and rape of a jogger in Central Park.

The school’s Black Law Students Association had called for Lederer’s dismissal over her role in the prosecution of the five teens, who served full prison sentences before their convictions were vacated in 2002 due to DNA evidence exonerating them and a confession from serial rapist Mattias Reyes.

Students unsuccessfully called on the university to remove Lederer in 2013, but public interest has been renewed in the case by the Netflix docudrama “When They See Us,” in which Lederer is played by Vera Farmiga.

Lederer informed the school of her decision not to seek reappointment late Wednesday, according to Law School Dean Gillian Lester.

“The mini-series has reignited a painful—and vital—national conversation about race, identity, and criminal justice,” Lester said in a statement, according to Bloomberg Law.

“I am deeply committed to fostering a learning environment that furthers this important and ongoing dialogue, one that draws upon the lived experiences of all members of our community and actively confronts the most difficult issues of our time,” she added.

[SOURCE: THE HILL]

Monday, June 10, 2019

Cedric Richmond to co-chair Joe Biden’s campaign for president

U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, has been chosen as the first national co-chairman of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, The New York Times reported Friday (May 31). The selection could improve the former vice president’s stock with black voters and members of Congress at a time when two black Democrats, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, also are seeking the party’s nomination for president.

Richmond worked with Booker and Harris when he chaired the Congressional Black Caucus in 2017 and 2018, and Politico reported that he gave maximum monetary contributions to their campaigns. In August, he facilitated a question-and-answer session with another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is white, at Dillard University in New Orleans.

But he also has been a vocal supporter of Biden, a white man who was a senator from Delaware before becoming Barack Obama’s vice president. Richmond was pushing Biden to run as early as 2016, the year Republican Donald Trump was elected president, and he formally endorsed Biden in April, Politico reported.

What will be his role in the Biden campaign? Richmond told The Times: “My biggest strength is offering political advice and using my political instincts to come up with strategy, and not just strategy in the African-American community. I think the real strength is in the South and other parts of the country."

Sunday, June 09, 2019

The Sixth Man: A Memoir by Andre Iguodala

The standout memoir from NBA powerhouse Andre Iguodala, the indomitable sixth man of the champion Golden State Warriors.

Andre Iguodala is one of the most admired players in the NBA. And fresh off the Warriors’ third NBA championship in the last four years, his game has never been stronger.

Off the court, Iguodala has earned respect, too—for his successful tech investments, his philanthropy, and increasingly for his contributions to the conversation about race in America. It is no surprise, then, that in his first book, Andre, with his cowriter Carvell Wallace, has pushed himself to go further than he ever has before about his life, not only as an athlete but about what makes him who he is at his core.

The Sixth Man traces Andre’s journey from childhood in his Illinois hometown to his Bay Area home court today. Basketball has always been there. But this is the story, too, of his experience of the conflict and racial tension always at hand in a professional league made up largely of African American men; of whether and why the athlete owes the total sacrifice of his body; of the relationship between competition and brotherhood among the players of one of history’s most glorious championship teams. And of what motivates an athlete to keep striving for more once they’ve already achieved the highest level of play they could have dreamed.

On drive, on leadership, on pain, on accomplishment, on the shame of being given a role, and the glory of taking a role on: This is a powerful memoir of life and basketball that reveals new depths to the superstar athlete, and offers tremendous insight into most urgent stories being told in American society today.

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At Home with Muhammad Ali: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Forgiveness

Muhammad Ali’s daughter captures the legendary heavyweight boxing champion, Olympic Gold medalist, activist, and philanthropist as never before in this candid and intimate family memoir, based on personal recordings he kept throughout his adult life.

Athlete. Activist. Champion. Ambassador. Icon. Father. The greatest, Muhammad Ali, is all of these things. In this candid family memoir, Hana Ali illuminates this momentous figure as only a daughter can. As Ali approached the end of his astonishing boxing career, he embraced a new purpose and role, turning his focus to his family and friends. In that role, he took center stage as an ambassador for peace and friendship.

Dedicated to preserving his family’s unique history, Ali began recording a series of audio diaries in the 1970s, which his daughter later inherited. Through these private tapes, as well as personal journals, love letters, cherished memories, and many never-before-seen photographs, she reveals a complex man devoted to keeping all nine of his children united, and to helping others. Hana gives us a privileged glimpse inside the Ali home, sharing the everyday adventures her family experienced—all so “normal,” with visitors such as Clint Eastwood and John Travolta dropping by. She shares the joy and laughter, the hardship and pain, and, most importantly, the dedication and love that has bonded them.

“It’s been said that my father is one of the most written-about people in the world,” Hana writes. “As the chronicles continue to grow, the deepest and most essential essence of his spirit is still largely unknown.” A moving and poignant love letter from a daughter to a father, At Home with Muhammad Ali is the untold story of Ali’s family legacy—a gift both eternal and priceless.

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