NC A&T UNIVERSITY
HBCUs GET FEDERAL ATTENTION
AMID UNSOLVED BOMB THREATS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As of press time Monday, there still haven’t been any arrests in the wave of bomb threats that have shaken well over 30 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and churches throughout the nation, including here in North Carolina, since January.
But the FBI promised Congress late last week that the matter still is one it’s highest priorities because it’s a clear example of domestic terrorism. For now, the FBI told the House Oversight Committee Thursday that it is focusing on “a single juvenile” as being behind most of the threats.
“We’ve treated this as domestic terrorism,” Ryan Young, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Intelligence branch told the committee. “It’s meant to inflict harm within the African-American population.”
Weeks earlier, it was reported that federal agents had identified “six tech-savvy juveniles” to be behind the HBCU wave.
Beyond hearing from presidents of HBCUs, members of Congress heard from concerned students attending HBCUs, who told of not being able to function emotionally or academically because of the threats, thus needing counseling.
"Racially charged acts like the bomb threats are not only an attack to our campus, but they are an attack on the ideals and values of HBCUs and their collective mission,” testified Emmanuel Ukot, SGA president at Xavier University in Louisiana.
In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that HBCUs are now eligible for special grant funding to better prepare against future bomb threat incidents. Sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Project School Emergency Response to Violence program, grants ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 are being made available to HBCUs to improve campus safety and provide mental health resources.
"Every American should be able to learn, work, worship and gather without fear,” said Harris, an alumna of Howard University in Washington, D.C...
At least five HBCUs here in North Carolina - Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Central University in Durham, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina A&T University Greensboro and Elizabeth City State University, have been targeted, officials say.
One notion apparent to some in law enforcement, is that the wave of HBCU bomb threats are a part of a larger rise in crimes against the African-American community in recent months.
According to it’s annual report, “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2021,” the Southern Poverty Law Center states “the reactionary and racist beliefs that propelled a mob into the [U.S.] Capitol [on Jan. 6th, 2021] have not dissipated…[but rather have] coalesced into a political movement that is now one of the most powerful forces shaping [American politics today].”
Evidence? At a recent rally in Florence, South Carolina, former Pres. Donald Trump urged his supporters to “lay down their lives” against the teaching of Critical Race Theory - the study of oppression under American systemic racism - calling it “a matter of national survival.”
Meanwhile, according to the Anti-Defamation League, North Carolina was the 15th highest ranking state when it came to white supremacist hate propaganda in the nation, per an ADL report.
Finally, there is a rise of white nationalism among Hispanics, the result, according to Yahoo News, “ ...of lingering anti-Black….views among U.S. Latinos that are rarely openly discussed."
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JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON
JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON
ON HER WAY TO SENATE CONFIRMATION
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
District of Columbia Circuit Appellate Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is theoretically two major votes away from making history as the first African-American female ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court - the confirmation vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the confirmation vote of the Democrat-led U.S. Senate.
And it all started at her family’s dining room table when, as a preschooler, she was doing her “homework” with her father, Johnny Brown.
“My father, in particular, bears responsibility for my interest in the law,” Judge Jackson said Monday during her introduction to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “When I was four, we moved back to Miami so that he could be a full-time law student. We lived on the campus of the University of Miami law school, and during those years, my mother pulled double duty, working as the sole breadwinner of our family, while also guiding and inspiring 4-year-old me. My very earliest memories are of watching my father study — he had his stack of law books on the kitchen table while I sat across from him with my stack of coloring books.”
“When I think back on those times, there really is no question that my love of the law began in that formative period,” Judge Jackson recalls.
Johnny Brown, who graduated from North Carolina Central University (then North Carolina Central College) in Durham, would later become the chief attorney for the Miami-Dade County School Board. A tremendous personal achievement for sure, but Brown could never have dreamed that his little girl - whose full African name, Ketanji Onyika means “lovely one”- would one day be on the precipice of making history as the first Black woman on the highest court in the land.
Judge Brown also acknowledged her large extended family in several states across the nation, including North Carolina.
Once the questioning started in earnest this week, Judge Jackson, an experienced debater, was able to effectively defend her judicial record, especially against probing Republican committee member attacks disguised as “questions” from senators Marsha Blackburn, Josh Hawley and Lindsay Graham.
Even with the tough, partisan questions trying to portray her as soft on child pornography, terrorism or crime as a result of her many years as a federal public defender, Judge Jackson is fully expected to be voted out of the Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee, and with Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote, should be confirmed when the full U.S. Senate votes in April.
“Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is the most qualified Supreme Court nominee in years," says North Carolina Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC-12). "That alone should merit sincere consideration from all 100 senators. She has my full support, and my best wishes for a speedy confirmation."
“If I am confirmed, I commit to you that I will work productively to support and defend the Constitution and the grand experiment of American democracy that has endured over these past 246 years,” Judge Jackson said Monday.
“I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously. I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.”
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