Showing posts with label Louisiana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Louisiana. Show all posts

Monday, July 04, 2022

Louisiana Army base named after confederate general could be renamed after African American soldier

During the Jim Crow era, nine Southern Army bases were named for treasonous Confederate generals who fought to preserve slavery and white supremacy. Now a commission established by Congress has suggested new names for the bases that “embody the best of the United States Army and America.”

Fort Polk in Louisiana would be renamed Fort Johnson after Harlem hellfighter, Sgt. Henry Johnson if the recommendations are approved by Congress.

Pvt. Henry Johnson deployed to Europe during World War I in a storied Black regiment known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The U.S. armed forces were segregated, and the Hellfighters were not allowed to fight on the front lines with other U.S. troops. Instead, the Black soldiers fought under the command of their French allies.

That put Johnson and his unit at the front lines, “against all odds — Black Americans wearing French uniforms,” in the predawn hours of May 15, 1918, as German troops swarmed his sentry post at the edge of the Argonne Forest, according to a biography provided by the naming commission.

Johnson threw grenades until he had no more left to throw. Then he fired his rifle until it jammed. Then he clubbed enemy soldiers with the butt of his rifle until it split apart. Then he hacked away at the enemy with his bolo knife.

After the Germans retreated, daylight revealed that Johnson had killed four enemy soldiers and wounded an estimated 10 to 20. He suffered 21 wounds in combat.

For their actions, Johnson and his sentrymate on duty that night were the first Americans to be awarded the Croix du Guerre, one of France’s highest military honors. Almost a century later, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Johnson the Medal of Honor.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Black Louisiana Senate Candidate Burns Confederate Flag in New Campaign Video

Gary Chambers, a Black U.S. Senate candidate from Louisiana burned a Confederate flag while speaking out against restrictive voting laws in his latest campaign video released on Wednesday.

Watch that video below:

Monday, December 03, 2018

Gwen Collins-Greenup in runoff to become Louisiana Secretary of State

A runoff to become Louisiana's next Secretary of State is set for Saturday, December 8.

It's between Democratic candidate Gwen Collins-Greenup, and Republican candidate Kyle Ardoin, who's currently serving as the interim Secretary of State.

If Collins-Greenup wins, she would be the first African-American woman to be elected to statewide office in Louisiana. Watch an interview with her below:

Sunday, December 03, 2017

Ex-congressman gets 13-year sentence reduced to time served

A former congressman convicted nearly a decade ago on bribery charges had his sentence reduced Friday to time served, knocking nearly eight years off a prison term in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling make it tougher to convict public officials of bribery.

The resentencing ended a 12-year legal saga for William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, whose case made headlines in 2005 after he was caught with $90,000 stashed in his freezer.

Jefferson walked out of an Alexandria courtroom a free man Friday, now facing only a year of post-release supervision after serving five years and five months of his original 13-year-prison sentence.

"I'm going to go back home and get a Christmas dinner," a smiling Jefferson told reporters after Friday's hearing.

Jefferson, 70, was convicted on 10 bribery-related counts in a 2009 trial. In October, though, the judge who sent him away ordered him freed. He said that a 2016 ruling by the Supreme Court overturning the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on corruption charges changed the law as to what constitutes an "official act" for which a public official can be charged with bribery.

The judge, T.S. Ellis III, tossed out seven of ten counts of conviction against Jefferson, and said Jefferson was entitled to a new sentencing hearing on the three counts that held up.

The new landscape prompted prosecutors and Jefferson's lawyers to negotiate, and this week they jointly proposed a universal settlement in which Jefferson's sentence would be reduced to time served plus a $189,000 fine, which amounts to what has already been collected on a $470,000 judgment entered at the time of his conviction.

At Friday's hearing, Ellis had the option to impose a stiffer sentence, but said the negotiated deal represented a reasonable conclusion to the case.

[SOURCE]

Friday, August 19, 2016

Unlike Donald Trump, Pres. Obama is actually helping Louisiana flood victims


By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com [EMAIL]

Today (08/19/2016) Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence visited the flood ravaged areas in what amounts to a glorified photo op. While Trump wants us to think he cares about the flood victims this trip is really an attempt to embarrass President Obama who has yet to visit Louisiana. The conservative media is also trying to put this narrative out there that Obama just doesn't care about the people of Louisiana. There are just a few issues with that narrative that make it untrue.

One problem with that narrative is Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards  asked Pres. Obama not to come right now so that first responders can focus on the flood victims. The governor made the following statement:

It is a major ordeal, they free up the interstate for him. We have to take hundreds of local first responders, police officers, sheriffs, deputies and state troopers to provide security for that type of visit. I would just as soon have those people engaged in the response rather than trying to secure the president. So I’d ask him to wait, if he would, another couple weeks.
The other problem with that is our president has already taken action to help the flood victims. On August 14, 2016 he signed a Louisiana Disaster Declaration that allows the state and it's people to apply for federal aid.
President Obama Signs Louisiana Disaster Declaration
The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe storms and flooding beginning on August 11, 2016, and continuing.
The President's action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena, and Tangipahoa.
Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
Federal funding also is available to the state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work as a result of the flooding in the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena, and Tangipahoa.
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
W. Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Gerard M. Stolar as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area. 
FEMA said that damage surveys are continuing in other areas, and more parishes and additional forms of assistance may be designated after the assessments are fully completed.
FEMA said that residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated parishes can begin applying for assistance tomorrow by registering online athttp://www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired.  The toll-free telephone numbers will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (local time) seven days a week until further notice.  
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT: FEMA NEWS DESK AT (202) 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@DHS.GOV.

So boys and girls it looks like the truth has fioled those dastardly republicans/conservatives again.

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com


Saturday, December 05, 2015

Corrections officers indicted in death of Nimala Henry

This case may not be as well known as Sandra Bland's but it's just as tragic. Nimala Henry was also found dead in her cell in after being unable to make bail. George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.com

A federal grand jury indicted four Louisiana corrections officers Thursday, charging them with violating the civil rights of inmate Nimali Henry, who died in prison last year after her medical needs were allegedly ignored. The indictment says the officers from St. Bernard Parish Prison in Chalmette, Louisiana, knew Henry, 19, had serious medical conditions but failed to provide her with necessary help, resulting in her death.

Capt. Andre Dominick, Cpl. Timothy Williams, Deputy Debra Becnel and Deputy Lisa Vaccarella are each charged with violating civil rights and making false statements to the FBI. The maximum penalties are life in prison for the civil rights charge and five years in prison for each false statement.

Henry was arrested in March 2014 on minor charges and held in jail after her family could not pay her $25,000 bond. She was arrested for disturbing the peace, simple battery and unauthorized entry after a domestic dispute. Henry, who was mother to a then-4-month-old daughter, was found lying facedown and unresponsive in her cell 10 days after her arrest, after suffering a blood clot leading to her death.

[SOURCE]