U.S. charges Arizona man with threatening Harvard's black commencement

An Arizona man who made racially-charged online threats to shoot students attending Harvard's first black commencement ceremony last year and to bomb the university has been arrested, federal authorities said on Saturday.

A federal grand jury in Boston indicted Nicholas Zuckerman, 24, on two counts of "transmitting in interstate and foreign commerce a threat to injure the person of another." Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Zuckerman was arrested on Friday and will be brought to U.S. District Court in Boston. A federal court in Arizona will appoint a lawyer for him on Monday, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said. They did not say where Zuckerman was being held or if he had any connection to Harvard.

After Harvard announced it would hold a special commencement ceremony on May 23, 2017, to celebrate the accomplishments of black students graduating from the university, Zuckerman made two threatening posts on the university's Instagram account, the indictment said.

In his first posting, the indictment alleged, Zuckerman commented on May 11 under an image of three young black women: "If the blacks only ceremony happens, then I encourage violence and death at it. I'm thinking two automatics with extendo clips." He also used a racial epithet.

He followed two days later with a comment under an American flag he had posted on the university's account saying, "#bombharvard and end their pro-black agenda," the indictment said.

Organizers of last year's black commencement said it was open to all graduating students, as was Harvard's official commencement, which was held two days later. The university held its second black commencement last month on May 22.

[SOURCE: YAHOO NEWS]

4 things Trump's offer to NFL players to pardon people wont change

By George L. Cook III African American Reports EMAIL: George Cook

With the backdrop of the positive response to his pardon of Alice Johnson and the National Anthem controversy in which National Football League players are protesting police brutality and racism, President Trump in his tone-deaf way has made an offer to black athletes in the NFL to submit cases of possible injustice so he can evaluate them for potential pardons.

"I’m going to ask all of those people to recommend to me -- because that’s what they’re protesting -- people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system,” Trump told reporters Friday before departing the for the G-7 summit in Canada, adding that they shouldn’t remain in the locker room while the national anthem is played before games.

"If I find, and my committee finds, that they’re unfairly treated, then we will pardon them, or at least let them out," the president said.

While Trump's offer to pardon those in federal prison may help dozens it does nothing to help thousands who suffer at the hands of the justice system and abusive policing. Trump is hoping that African Americans somehow fall for this PR stunt and see this as a move that benefits them a whole when it doesn't.

Here are four things his offer to pardon people won't address:

Police committing acts of brutality and shooting unarmed black men. Until there are tougher consequences at the Federal level for bad police officers who violate the HUMAN rights of American citizens these abuses will continue.

Criminal justice reform addressing disparate sentences for African Americans as compared to white Americans for committing the same crimes.

Bail reform, thousands sit in jail not because they have been found guilty of a crime but because they can't make bail.

Environmental issues that affect black communities that lead to learning and behavioral problems that can make a child more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, these are things that immediately sprung to mind upon hearing of Trump's offer to NFL players.

This is just another example of Trump pointing to the bright shiny object hoping that we all ignore the grim reality that needs to be addressed. Pay attention people and don't let this con-man get with pulling yet another PR stunt that doesn't benefit African Americans as a whole.

So, in light of Trump's misguided offer to pardon boxing legend Muhammad Ali whose conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971 I would like to close by warning us all not to fall for the okey-doke.

George L. Cook III African American Reports

Oprah Winfrey gets exhibit in National Museum of African American History and Culture

“Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture,” opens June 8 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and continues through June 2019. The exhibition will use the story of Winfrey and her 25-year daytime talk show as a lens to explore contemporary American history and culture, especially issues of power, gender and the media. It will feature video clips on a range of subjects, interactive interviews with Winfrey, costumes from her films Beloved and The Color Purple and artifacts from Harpo Studios in Chicago, home of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

“This exhibition examines the power of television,” said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum’s founding director. “Just as Oprah Winfrey watched TV coverage of the civil rights movement and was shaped by the era in which she was born and raised, she has gone on to have a profound effect on how Americans view themselves and each other in the tumultuous decades that followed. She has a place in the museum with a long line of women who did extraordinary things in their time—Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Maya Angelou—women who worked to redeem the soul of America.”

Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host, received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and is the nation’s first self-made African American female billionaire. This new Smithsonian exhibition probes the way in which America shaped Winfrey and how Winfrey’s work has shaped America.

The exhibition is in three sections: America Shapes Oprah, 1950s–1980s, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Oprah Shapes America. Museum curators Rhea L. Combs and Kathleen Kendrick put Winfrey’s story into context for visitors: “During her 25 years on broadcast television, her remarkable ability to connect in a familiar way with diverse audiences was crucial to her success. Many of the values she espoused on her show—including empowerment, education, spirituality and philanthropy—were rooted in her African American identity and upbringing.”

In the first section, America Shapes Oprah, key events in Winfrey’s life are considered in relationship to the broader political, social and cultural changes happening in the country. Artifacts include items from Winfrey’s childhood when she was deeply affected by the working women in her life, as well as artists, authors and activists whose works gave voice to the experiences of African American women. Among the highlights: the high school diploma earned by Carlotta Walls, one of the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated Central High School in Arkansas in 1957; a pennant carried by Edith Lee Payne, a 12-year-old girl from Detroit, at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; images of women activists, including Pauli Murray, an attorney and Episcopal priest who helped organize the March on Washington, and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm; and works by artist Elizabeth Catlett.

The exhibition also examines the evolution of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which dominated daytime TV from 1986 through 2011. Watched by millions in 145 countries, the show won 48 Daytime Emmy Awards, and featured a wide range of celebrities and challenging, rarely discussed topics such as beauty, relationships, sexual abuse and current affairs. Winfrey herself received a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

The exhibition comes full circle with a section titled Oprah Shapes America. It explores Winfrey’s global influence that extends far beyond the world of TV, journalism and entertainment. The phenomenon of “The Oprah Effect”—Winfrey’s ability to shape public opinion and change people’s lives—has long been a subject of fascination and debate; it has raised important questions about the relationship between race, gender and power and about whose voices deserve to be heard and whose perspectives and experiences matter.

“Watching Oprah” is located in the museum’s Special Exhibitions gallery, a 4,300-square-foot exhibition space located on the concourse level near the elevator that takes visitors to the first level of the History Galleries. The exhibition is supported by MGM Resorts International, Target, Bank of America, and FedEx Corporation. The public can join the online conversation using #WatchingOprah and explore the exhibition online at www.nmaahc.si.edu/watchingoprah.

Help this legendary black radio host get into the radio Hall of Fame

Trump Treasury won't commit to putting Harriet Tubman on $20 bill

The Trump administration hasn't commited to an Obama-era pledge to put abolitionist and civil rights hero Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, according to a statement from a Senate Democrat.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told The New York Times that the Treasury Department responded to her letter -- which was questioning the status of the change originally announced by the Obama administration in April 2016 -- by claiming that no designs for the $20 bill or plans to include Tubman's image had been finalized.

“The redesign of the next currency series is still in the early stages, and neither the final designs nor all features have been finalized for the new notes,” Treasury Department assistant secretary Drew Maloney wrote to Shaheen.

“For this reason, the department is unable to provide additional information regarding the potential designs at this time.”

Shaheen blasted the response, which she called "severely" disappointing and knocked the Trump administration for not following through with the promise to honor the civil rights legend.

“I am severely disappointed by the Trump administration’s failure to prioritize the redesign of the $20 bill to honor Harriet Tubman, and other trailblazing women and civil rights leaders,” Shaheen said in a statement to the Times. “Now that plan has been shelved without notice or reason.”

“I’ll continue to press the Treasury Department to expedite the redesign of the $20 bill and keep its promise to the American people,” she said.

[SOURCE: THE HILL]