NC MEMORIALS FOR
GEORGE FLOYD
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As the murder trial of the police officer accused of taking George Floyd’s life gets underway in Minneapolis, Minn., the City Council there has reach a civil settlement with the Floyd’s family for the record amount of $27 million.
It has been reported that some of the settlement money may be used to establish memorials to George Floyd here in North Carolina, as well as other areas he became associated with.
Many forget that while while Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, and grew up in the immediate years before in the Houston, Texas area, he was born, and briefly raised in Raeford, near Fayetteville.
His sister Bridgette currently lives in Hoke County.
After her brother’s death, Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters that he had called Floyd’s sister, expressed his condolences, and told her that while he could not bring he back, “I can work for justice in his name. I assured her that’s what we’ll do.”
Afterwards, the second of three rousing memorial services in tribute to George Floyd were held at a conference center in Raeford.
Last Friday, on the day that Minneapolis announced the $27 million settlement, WRAL-TV reported that there were “discussions” about creating a memorial to George Floyd near Fayetteville, and also near Shaw University in Raleigh.
Last November, WTVD-TV reported that Roger Floyd, George Floyd’s uncle, along with Bridgette and the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, was planning “…a brick and mortar memorial center.”
"The focus is going to be basically on education, scholarships, funding -- those types of things -- electronic learning emphasis, wellness, bringing about urbanistic art," Roger told WTVD-TV. "We want to establish a location within the center where we can have permanent art as well as temporary art that's constantly moving to tell the story about what we want to portray in the center."
Originally, that memorial center was to be built with contributions and donations from the public, and was scheduled for completion in 24 to 36 months.
The website at www.georgefloydmc.org showcases the GFMC “8:46” Scholarship Fund, “8:46” being the length of time then Officer Derek Chavis used his knee on George Floyd’s head. Effectively suffocating the 46-year-old Black man on a Minneapolis street as he cried “I can’t breathe.”
The memorial center also boasts of The George Floyd Youth Leadership Academy “…creating our future teachers, doctors, lawyers, CEO’s, engineers and community leaders, and finally the George Floyd Memorial Center Social Learning Center will be “…an online community dedicated to promoting safety, personal development, and social responsibility among youth.”
The George Floyd Memorial Center, which also has a Facebook page, is a non-profit organization operating under the IRS 501 (c)3 tax exempt code, and list Thomas McLaurin as CEO/Executive Director, and Roger Floyd as Executive Board/Treasurer.
The Center is listed at North Hill Tower II, 4242 Six Forks Rd. Suite 1550, in Raleigh.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge in the Floyd murder trial has reinstated a three-degree murder charge against former Police Officer Derek Chauvin. He also faces a second-degree murder charge, and second-degree manslaughter.
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SUPPORTERS SEEK PARDON OF
INNOCENCE FOR DONTAE SHARPE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Donte Sharpe has released from prison in August 2019 after spending 26 years behind bars for the 1994 Greenville murder of George Radcliffe, a crime Sharpe had always maintained he did not commit.
Sharpe was only 18 years-old at the time.
“Perhaps most importantly, it is now clear that the police misled the judge throughout the case,” revealed a May 2017 story in Slate.com. “At a 1997 hearing on a motion for a new trial, [a detective] testified that he believed [a false witness’] identification of Sharpe because she’d passed a polygraph administered before her testimony. The results, however, were inconclusive, a fact police did not disclose until 2014.”
Prosecutors and a judge agreed, and after a strong campaign by the NC NAACP and a coalition of advocates, Sharpe was released from prison as a free man.
However, for almost two years now, Sharpe has not truly been free because even though he was released from prison, he has never received a pardon of innocence from Gov. Roy Cooper, who has been petitioned to pardon Sharpe by application since November 2019.
This week, Donte Sharpe celebrated a birthday, and supporters sought to have Gov. Cooper grant a full pardon of innocence. Those supporters, the NC Second Chance Alliance, are, according to their website, “…is a statewide alliance of people with criminal records, their family members, service providers, congregations, community leaders and concerned citizens that have come together to address the causes of criminal records and the barriers they create to successful reentry [into society].”
Regarding Sharpe, “…without a pardon, Dontae continues to her the mark of a wrongful imprisonment on his record and is ineligible to be paid restitution by the state for decades of his life stolen from him and his family by a broken system.
The campaign to have Dontae Sharpe receive a full pardon of innocence its also led by the legal team that helped to head up his release from prison, Forward Justice, “ …a nonpartisan law, policy and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social and economic justice justice in the U.S. South,” based in Durham.
“In August of 2019, after finally being granted a new trial, Dontae was exonerated in court and walked out a free man,” Forward Justice states on it’s website. “Though he had been offered deals in the past that would have allowed him to be released from prison earlier through an admission of guilt, Dontae stood fast in his innocence and left the prison on his terms.”
“Following his release, Dontae joined the Forward Justice team as the founding Fellow in the Returning in Service and Excellence (RISE) Fellowship, and has become an advocate and leader for criminal justice reform. Dontae speaks at colleges across the state about his experience, the corruption in the criminal legal system, and the need for widespread reform to stop the wrongful convictions that disregard truth and justice and destroy lives.”
Forward Justice is urging supporters to sign a petition asking Gov. Cooper to grant a full pardon of innocence to Dontae Sharpe at www.justice.freedontaesharpe.com.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 03-18-21
LT. GOV. WANTS “INDOCTRINATION” IN STATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO STOP
[GREENSBORO] Continuing his crusade against what he believes is the liberal “indoctrination” of North Carolina’s public school children, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced this week that he’s starting a task force to take parental and student complaints. Convinced that this is a major problem in the state that needs to be addressed, the Black Republican admitted that he hasn’t thought through what power the panel will have once up and running. As for evidence of a problem? Robinson says the task force will provide that too.
GOV. COOPER SAYS HE WON’T RUN FOR SENATE BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT ROBINSON RUNNING THE STATE
[RALEIGH] There’s little question in Gov. Roy Cooper’s mind that if he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, he’d win. But that would mean leaving the Governor’s Office early to so, and with conservative Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson at the ready to takeover from Cooper, that would be a problem, Cooper told the online political magazine, Politico. “We …have a Republican lieutenant governor and if you look at who he is and what he stands for, I’m not sure that North Carolina needs two years of that…” Cooper told Politico. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Burr has indicated that he is leaving office in 2022.
ORANGE COUNTY TO NAME IT’S NEW AG CENTER AFTER BLACK WOMAN PIONEER
[HILLSBOROUGH] The Orange County Commission Board this week unanimously voted to name it’s new agricultural center the Bonnie B. Davis Environmental and Agricultural Center, after Bonnie Bedal Briley Davis, Orange County’s first Black agricultural extension agent. Ms. Davis, who died in 2018 at the age of 92, was considered a major community leader who spent her 40-year career helping others .
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