Activist allege hundreds of ‘missing African American burial plots’

Metro Atlanta families allege plots of loved ones are ‘missing’ after a reburial project set for completion six years ago. The Clayton and Henry County Chapter of National Action Network (NAN) is accusing the property owners of not following through on a plan to move all the burials 10 minutes away to Carver Memorial Gardens.

Black clergy claim Sen. Tim Scott refused to meet on Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation

NORTH CHARLESTON S.C. - Members of the Black clergy in the Lowcountry are voicing concerns that U.S. Sen. Tim Scott refused to meet with them about their concerns over the confirmation process of the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The National Action Network and members of clergy held a news conference Friday morning at noon at North Charleston City Hall to address their concerns. In a news release, the group says Scott would not meet with them to discuss the “despicable treatment” of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was eventually confirmed for the nation’s highest court.

“Sen. Scott’s vote against the most qualified judge to be nominated to the Supreme Court in modern times, not my opinion, but consensus, placed him on the wrong side of history,” the Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III, the vice president of the National Action Network, said. “As the first Black U.S. senator appointed and elected from the state of South Carolina in modern times, and frankly, the first senator of his race to serve since Reconstruction in the United States Senate, gave him a unique opportunity to do something that our ancestors our work has waited for and look forward to for hundreds of years, he had an opportunity to put principle love of family love of community by party and above nonsense. Sen. Scott had a historic opportunity, and I believe a solemn obligation to vote yes.”

Rivers said he was “troubled and frankly hurt” that Scott “did not defend Jackson’s character against the assassinations and the most outrageous and disgraceful treatment any nominee has faced during his time in the Senate.”

Rivers said the group requested a meeting with Scott, but Scott eventually responded to the request, stating in an email, “I will not be able to meet with y’all,” and that the group could meet with Scott’s staff.

“I wrote back to tell the senator, ‘We didn’t vote for your staff and the staff were not on the ballot,’” Rivers said.

He said Scott never got back to them about an alternative date and time.

“Members of the clergy wanted to share with Sen. Scott their concerns and disgust with the treatment of Judge Brown Jackson and Sen. Scott’s vote against her historic nomination,” the release states. “Sen. Scott has refused to meet with Black clergy to discuss our concerns, so tomorrow, many members of the clergy will make their concerns known publicly to Sen. Scott.”

[SOURCE WMBF]

Civil rights and religious leaders urge African Americans to defy governors' efforts to reopen businesses

A coalition of prominent civil rights and black religious leaders is urging African American residents who live in states that are moving swiftly to reopen their economies to stay home in defiance of governors until there's evidence the coronavirus outbreak has eased.

The group, convened by the Conference of National Black Churches and Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, said some governors are demonstrating "reckless disregard for the health and life of black residents" and called for black churches and businesses to remain closed in those states until there's evidence that it's safe to resume more normal activity.

"We do not take it lightly to encourage members of our communities to defy the orders of state governors," the officials said in a statement. "Our sacred duty is to support and advance the life and health of Black people, families and communities in our country."

Top officials with the NAACP, the National Urban League and the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law are among the groups joining the stay-at-home message.

Covid-19 has cut a particularly deadly path through African American communities. Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show black patients have made up nearly 20% US coronavirus deaths, although African Americans make up about 13% of the nation's population.

[SOURCE: CNN]

Kamala Harris speech at 2019 National Action Network Convention

Speaking at the National Action Network's conference in New York, California Sen. Kamala Harris pledged to double the size of the Justice Department's civil rights division and to sign legislation creating a commission to study reparations to African Americans hurt by slavery. Watch her entire speech below:

Cory Booker speech at 2019 National Action Network annual convention

Democratic Presidential Candidate Cory Booker spoke at the 2019 National Action Network annual convention in New York City. Booker spoke about the importance of the Black Church and the moral crisis facing the United States when it comes to clean water and the injustice in the criminal justice system. Watch his full speech below:

Omarosa Manigault: Blacks not trying hard enough to work with Trump

Here's another example of Omarosa's and the Trump administrations tone deafness to the black community. They don't seem to get that the onus is in them to earn the trust and respect of the community through THEIR actions and not the other way around. Refusing to enforce consent decrees, cuts to education and HBCUs, attacks on healthcare (ACA), Jeff Sessions appointment as Attorney General, talking about making stop and frisk the law of the land, not doing anything about discriminatory voter ID laws, and cutting environmental protections don't give the impression that the Trump administration wants to work with African Americans. George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.

President Donald Trump's liaison to the black community, the former "Apprentice" star Omarosa Manigault, says African-American activists aren't trying hard enough to work with the new administration.

The White House aide delivered the pointed message in an interview with The Associated Press in advance of an appearance Thursday at the annual convention of an activist organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

"We're here waiting, willing to work with the community," Manigault said when asked about Trump's moves to slash programs that benefit minorities. "This president wants to engage. It's not a one-way street."

She was more measured Thursday afternoon as she faced hundreds of black activists, who, like African-American voters across the nation last fall, overwhelmingly opposed Trump's presidency.

Several participants refused to utter the president's name in convention sessions, referring to the 45th president only by the number 45. Trump got just 8 percent of the African-American vote last November, according to exit polls.

"I'm ready," Manigault told the crowd as some murmured their disapproval. "I know what I came into, and I ain't never scared."

She insisted she's spent her first 100 days in Washington fighting for the black community. She noted that Trump has met personally with the Congressional Black Caucus and the presidents of historically black colleges and universities.

Manigault called on black leaders to help the struggling institutions as well.

"As I fight for you from the White House, I need you to fight on the outside," she said from the podium of a Manhattan hotel ballroom.

Read more: Trump Aide: Blacks not trying hard enough to work with Trump

Eric Holder Rips Republicans For Trying To Make It More Difficult To Vote

Former Attorney General Eric Holder says it’s “shameful” Republicans are seeking to implement photo ID laws and other measures that make it more difficult to vote.

Holder, who is leading a national redistricting reform effort, accused Republicans of trying to suppress potential voters who are less likely to support them. He made the remarks during the National Action Network’s annual convention in New York City on Wednesday.

“Some Republicans have declared, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, change the rules.’ Make it more difficult for those least likely to support Republican candidates to vote,” he said. “This is done with the knowledge that by simply depressing the votes of certain groups, not even winning the majority vote of these groups, elections can in fact be effective.”

“The attempts in certain states to make even registration more difficult are shameful,” he added.

Holder went on to cite a 2014 study by the Government Accountability Office showing that voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee reduced turnout among young and African-American voters.

“If one were to try to find vote fraud or a rigged election system, that is exactly where it is,” he said.

Read more: Eric Holder Rips Republicans For Trying To Make It More Difficult To Vote

Full Speech: Bernie Sanders National Action Network

Here is the full speech from Bernie Sanders speaking at the National Action Network's convention on 04/14/2016.

Armstrong Williams slyly plays the race card during rant at National Action Network

During a National Action Network panel conservative radio host Armstrong Williams took a shot at Bill and Hillary Clinton during a political rant. Yes, the same Williams man who is Ben Carson's business manager, a radio talk show host, a radio mogul, and a guy who was paid $241,000 by President George Bush's education department to promote No Child left Behind on air. (Thought we forgot that last one didn't you?).

While attacks on the Clintons are nothing new for conservatives he does something that conservative claim only black race baiting activist do. Watch the video below and see if you can catch it. ( Article continues after the video.)

Did you catch what Williams said there?

He slyly made a racial argument against the Clintons by reminding everyone of what Bill Clinton said in South Carolina during the 2008 Democratic Primary. Basically Williams said that black voters shouldn't support Hillary Clinton because Bill Clinton made comments many thought to be negative about a black guy, President Obama. He was trying to pander to the audience before him. It didn't work, but he tried.

Aren't conservatives supposed to be better than that?

George Cook AfricanAmericanReports.com EMAIL

Full Speech: Hillary Clinton speaks to National Action Network 4/13/16

Here is Pres. Candidate Hillary Clinton full speech at the National Action Network's 25th Anniversary National Convention on 04/16/2016. She touches on racism, criminal justice reform, education, affordable housing, and more.

SPIKE LEE, OTHERS CALL FOR NATIONAL ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE INITIATIVE

Film director Spike Lee, the director of ChiRaq a movie about gun violence in Chicago and the Reverend Al Sharpton are part of a major new national push to end gun violence. Lew cites the murder of a 9-year-old boy, TyShawn Lee in Chicago as an example of how severe the epidemic has become.

During the press conference Lee pointed out you can't be vocal after Laquann McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer and silent after 9-year old Tyshawn Lee was killed.

"Tyshawn Lee is led to an alley and executed," he said. "It's not an either/or situation. It has to be both." Watch Spike Lee and others discuss this initiative below.

Ben Carson calls shooting of unarmed black man an "execution"

During the National Action Network convention Dr. Ben Carson called the shooting of Walter Scott an execution. You know you screwed up when even Mr. "Say bad stuff about black people" questions your actions. Yeah, it could have been the venue or the fact that this shooting is was caught on video but I'll give Carson the benefit of the doubt on this one. Watch Dr. Carson's comments below.

Lawsuit alleges Al Sharpton paid to keep quiet about lack of black TV programming

The Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network had their silence bought — with a hefty $3.8 million in “donations’’ — to not complain about the lack of black TV programming, according to an explosive new lawsuit filed by a national black-media group.

The Association of African-American Owned Media charges that Comcast and Time Warner carry barely a handful of channels that are completely black-owned — and Sharpton and other key African-American advocacy groups aren’t screaming about it because they were essentially paid not to.

Comcast even sweetened the deal for Sharpton by allowing him “to maintain his hosting position [on the Comcast-co-owned MSNBC] for more than three years in exchange for Sharpton’s continued public support for Comcast on issues of diversity … despite the notoriously low ratings that Sharpton’s show generates,’’ the suit says.

Sharpton blasted the suit Monday as “frivolous at best.’’

He denied to The Post that he and NAN received nearly $4 million from Comcast, insisting,“Never, did not get it.’’

The activist said that while his group has gotten some donations from the media giant, “It’s nowhere near $1 million, much less $3 million.’’

Read more: Sharpton paid to keep quiet about lack of black TV programming: suit

President Obama discusses voting rights at National Action Network Convention

President Barack Obama addressed the 16th annual National Action Network convention in New York Friday where he discussed voting rights and a few other topics. Watch the president's speech below: