Coretta Worried The F.B.I.

Information just released and it seems that Coretta Scott King
gave the F.B.I. the blues and so for years they kept tabs on
her. Even after the death of her husband Martin Luther King Jr
the agency still worried that Ms King could stir things up. Read on
and then let us hear your thoughts on the subject.


ATLANTA -- Federal agents spied on the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for several years after his assassination in 1968, according to newly released documents that reveal the FBI worried she'd follow in the footsteps of the slain civil rights leader.

In memos that show Coretta Scott King being closely followed by the government, the FBI speaks of concern that she might attempt "to tie the anti-Vietnam movement to the civil rights movement."

The FBI closed its file on Coretta Scott King four years after her husband's death, saying, "No information has come to the attention of Atlanta which indicates a propensity for violence or affiliation of subversive elements." The memo is dated Nov. 30, 1972.

The documents were obtained by KHOU-TV in Houston in a broadcast Thursday. Coretta Scott King died in January 2006 at age 78.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- which he and King founded in 1957 -- said the documents illustrated the FBI's pattern of "despicable and devious" civil-rights-era behavior against the organization and those affiliated with it.

"The FBI kept a microphone everywhere they could where the SCLC was concerned," said Lowery, who alleged that the agency had a member of the SCLC staff on its payroll.

"Since we had nothing to hide, it was no great problem for us," Lowery said. "But we don't put it past the FBI; J. Edgar Hoover hated Martin Luther King and everything that the SCLC stood for." (Hoover was director of the FBI at the time.)

Andrew Young, a King lieutenant during the civil rights movement, agreed but said he was surprised the government focused on Coretta Scott King.

"I didn't know it and I don't think she knew it," Young said. "If ever there was a woman that had the makings of a saint, it was Coretta.

"I don't know what they were looking for; I don't know what they were expecting to find. I don't know why they wasted the government's money."

Also included in the documents are:

* A 1969 FBI memo suggesting that the agency's Atlanta office make Ralph Abernathy, then the president of the SCLC, aware of death threats for the benefit of "the disruptive effect of confusing and worrying him."

* An intercepted 1971 letter by Coretta Scott King to the National Peace Action Coalition, in which she says the Vietnam War has "ravaged our domestic programs."

* An FBI review of her 1969 book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr." The agent says her "selfless, magnanimous, decorous attitude is belied by . . . [her] actual shrewd, calculating, businesslike activities."





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

LAPD Halts Car Impounding

It always seems to me that giving a person a
ticket and impounding their car amounted to
double jeopardy but in California it's just another
way to generate money. Check out the following
story and submit your opinion.

The Los Angeles Police Department has imposed a moratorium on impounding the vehicles of unlicensed drivers amid concerns that the practice may be unconstitutional, officials said Tuesday.

The decision touches on what has long been a hot-button issue, because many unlicensed drivers who have their cars towed are illegal immigrants who cannot get driver's licenses.

Immigrant rights groups and some legislators for years have sought legislation granting illegal immigrants some form of driver's licenses -- but the bills have been repeatedly rejected, most recently by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Former Gov. Gray Davis signed such a bill during the recall campaign against him, but the Legislature repealed the law at Schwarzenegger's urging soon after he ousted Davis.

LAPD officials said they decided to stop impounding until the city attorney's office provides a final legal assessment of a 2005 decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals involving an Oregon impound case.

The department's change comes after some civil rights groups as well as L.A. politicians called on the city to consider suspending impounding because of the Oregon ruling. The LAPD impounds about 40,000 cars a year from unlicensed drivers, though officials don't know how many of them are illegal immigrants.

But many other agencies -- including the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and California Highway Patrol -- continue to impound cars of unlicensed drivers, with some counties concluding that the appeals court ruling does not apply to them.

In a memo to all the LAPD's commanding officers, Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger directed that officers no longer impound vehicles in stops when the only offense was driving without a license. Drivers will continue to be cited for driving without a license. But the vehicle will be impounded only when it cannot be driven away by a licensed driver or parked legally and secured.

The moratorium met with immediate criticism Tuesday from some who see it as giving lawbreakers a free ride.

Councilman Dennis Zine, a reserve and former LAPD motorcycle officer, said the city could be liable if that unlicensed driver gets behind the wheel of that vehicle again and someone gets hurt. "You are jeopardizing public safety," Zine said.

Councilman Jose Huizar, who in June called on city leaders to study the Oregon ruling, said the city needs to follow the letter of the law, even if it's unpopular.

"According to the case, you cannot constitutionally impound a car because the driver does not have a driver's license. So I sought thatclarification," Huizar said. "I wanted to ensure the city complies with the law."





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

There's No Place Like Home!

It's been two years since Katrina raised havoc in the
Gulf of Mexico and still the battle to rebuild New Orleans
continues as now another lawsuit has been filed accusin
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
of cleansing the city of African Americans. Please feel free
to comment after reading the story below.

PUBLIC HOUSING advocates are gearing up for a sit-in at the offices of the Housing Authority of New Orleans tomorrow. Their frustration is understandable. Two years after Hurricane Katrina scattered residents to communities outside the Crescent City, most have yet to return home. But the protesters' goal of getting the displaced back into their old units is wrong. While the historical significance of those structures is undeniable, so is their history of being forlorn concentrations of poverty.

To tour the barracks-style apartment complexes of New Orleans is to see the best and worst of public housing. Because most of them were built in the 1940s, a walk into one of their cramped units is a walk back in time. For instance, residents can't run water in the bathtub and the bathroom sink at the same time. Warmth in the winter is provided by space heaters. For the most part, the old projects are cut off from the flow of the city because the city's streets don't go through them. Now, if you go to the redeveloped Fischer and St. Thomas complexes, you'll see the best in modern public housing. Warehousing of the poor and marginalizing them from the larger community are out. Modeled on HOPE VI developments, these are mixed-income neighborhoods of townhouses. The homes are spacious. The appliances are new. The sense of hopelessness that envelops Iberville, the one fully functioning old-style public housing project, is not present.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to bring four other old public housing estates into the modern era. But a lawsuit by the Advancement Project, a Washington-based civil rights organization, has stopped HUD from doing so. The lawsuit accuses the agency of cleansing African Americans from New Orleans by keeping the four public housing projects shuttered. It demands a right of return for all New Orleans public housing residents, and it demands that those families go back to the units they fled on Aug. 29, 2005. Until the case goes to trial in November, those families will have to wait. This is unconscionable. Yes, they should return. But they should return to something much better than they left.

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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Mississippi Sheriff Accused Of Kidnapping

The article below tells of Mexican nationals being brought
back to work in Mississippi by a local sheriff. The center of
the matter seems to be a disagreement between a recruit-
ment company and the workers and seems to be more of a
civil matter rather than criminal. Should the sheriff's
department have gotten involved in the matter or should
it have been handled by immigration?


Thirty Mexican nationals with visas to work in the U.S. claim police in Pascagoula kidnapped and threatened them with arrest or deportation if they did not return to an employer.

The workers, backed by the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups, said Wednesday that Pascagoula Police Capt. George Tillman threatened to send them to jail if they didn't return to work for a recruitment company.

The workers plan to file a lawsuit accusing Tillman of "kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers' civil and constitutional rights," they said in a news release.

Enrique Garcia, 41, one of the workers, said Tillman told the workers the company "owned" them.

Interim Pascagoula Police Chief Eddie Stewart said in a statement that the allegations were without merit. He said they stemmed from a "call for service in which two private contractors were in a dispute over who employed a group of workers."

Officers handled the situation properly, he said.

"Our responding officers, with the assistance of Immigration Customs Enforcement, explained to both the private contractors and the workers their options," Stewart said.

Jackson County Assistant District Attorney Brice Wiggins said Wednesday his "office has not received a complaint or allegation on the matter."

The workers said they received H2B temporary visas to work for Southwest Shipyards in Channelview, Texas, but left the company because they were paid less than they were promised and working conditions were poor.

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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

He's Qualified, But....

President Bush has done it again, failing to
nominate an African-American to fill a post
on the U.S. Court of Appeals therefore adding
more slant to the already tilted judicial system.
Read the article below then let us know how
you feel about this injustice.

BEFORE BEING nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Leslie H. Southwick served for almost 12 years on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, where he participated in thousands of cases spanning the gamut of civil and criminal law. A panel of the American Bar Association unanimously found Judge Southwick to be "well qualified" for the promotion, its highest ranking. Yet congressional opponents have latched on to two opinions that Mr. Southwick joined, but did not write, to argue that he is unfit for the federal appeals post.

One case involved a child custody dispute in which a lower court awarded custody to the biological father, in part because the biological mother was a self-identified bisexual. The lower court weighed many other factors in making its determination, including income, family stability and time spent with the child, and it found the father better situated to care for her. Judge Southwick was part of the 8-2 majority that left that decision intact after finding that the lower court had not abused its discretion in reaching that conclusion. But he went a step further, joining an unnecessary concurrence that outlined the many laws in Mississippi at the time of this 2001 custody ruling that condemned or penalized homosexual activity.

The second case revolved around a Mississippi state employee who at a workplace meeting described an African American co-worker as "a good ole [expletive]." The employee was terminated for the use of the common racial slur, but she was later reinstated with back pay by a state administrative board. In a 1998 decision, the Mississippi Court of Appeals, with Judge Southwick in the 5-4 majority, concluded that the agency had acted within the law in reinstating the employee with back pay. The Mississippi Supreme Court later sent the case back to a lower court because it concluded that the employee should suffer some consequences for the offensive remark; the court did not object to the reinstatement.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Bush Takes Matters Into His Own Hands!

This may be the one time in which I may agree
with President Bush. Since congress seems to
lack the courage or will to handle the problem
itself the prez has stepped up to the plate. Read
the article below and the feel free to size up the
situation with your opinion.


A month after immigration restructuring failed in Congress, the Bush administration yesterday mapped a broad campaign to tighten border security and to pressure employers to fire illegal immigrant workers.

The 26 measures -- most of which continue or expand on current policies -- include raising fines for knowingly hiring illegal workers, streamlining current guest-worker programs, bolstering an electronic system employers can use to verify workers' legal status, and adding 370 miles of border fencing, 300 miles of vehicle barriers and 1,700 Border Patrol agents.

"These reforms represent steps my administration can take within the boundaries of existing law," President Bush said in a statement released shortly after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez presented the plan at a news conference. "Although the Congress has not addressed our broken immigration system by passing comprehensive reform legislation, my administration will continue to take every possible step to build upon the progress already made in strengthening our borders, enforcing our worksite laws, keeping our economy well-supplied with vital workers, and helping new Americans learn English."

Republicans offered a mixed reaction to the move -- just as they had to the failed legislation.
"It's a huge political issue, and a huge chunk of the population and a big part of the Republican Party base is demanding something be done," said GOP strategist Ed Rogers. "I hope the point is to establish credibility so maybe the next president has a better opportunity to really fix the problem."





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et your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

The Price Blacks Pay To Walk The Streets!

If you've ever been stopped and searched by your local
police while walking down the street minding your own
business then you know the feeling of having been violated.
This is an annoying practice that just so happens to happen
more to blacks than any other race. So why is that? If you
have an answer please step up and share it with us. But first
check out the article below.


The New York Police Department released information last night showing that officers stopped 113,945 people on city streets for the second quarter of this year, a number that a spokesman said was 12.4 percent lower than that recorded in the same period in 2006.

The spokesman, Assistant Chief Michael Collins, said the reports were turned over to the City Council yesterday, as required by law.
Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, said last night that the Council had received the new reports but that he had not had a chance to look at them.

The practice of “stop and frisks,” as the street stops are known by police officers, has caused some occasional tension with some city residents. The city has commissioned a study to analyze the stops made in 2006, as well as to interview officers about the decision-making process involved in making the stops.

Chief Collins said that the reports showed that 53 percent of the stops in the quarter that ended on June 30 involved blacks, and 67 percent of suspects were described as black by their victims (or by witnesses, for instance, in the case of homicides).

Chief Collins provided the breakdowns for other races: Hispanics made up 32 percent of those stopped and 26 percent of suspected offenders; whites made up 12 percent of those stopped and 5 percent of suspected offenders; and Asians made up 3 percent of those stopped and 2 percent of suspects.

Chief Collins did not provide raw numbers of those arrested or issued summonses as a result of street stops. But he said that 6 percent of the stops resulted in arrests for the second quarter of this year, an increase from the 4 percent of stops that resulted in arrests in the same quarter last year. Summonses also increased, to 8 percent of stops from 6 percent, Mr. Collins said.
Beyond the reports, the New York Civil Liberties Union wants the Police Department to turn over computerized data on its stop-and-frisk activity so it can analyze the role that race plays.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Report Says Campus Police Were Wrong!

A student failed to show I.D. on the UCLA campus
and get tasered. Well an independant report says
that the officer was wrong after his boss the chief
cleared him in the departments own investigation.
But we all know what happens when the police
investigated themselves. Read the article below,
then offer up your opinion of the situation.


Even with use of force policies that are "unduly permissive," a UCLA police officer violated department rules when he repeatedly shocked a student with an electric Taser gun last fall during a confrontation captured on video and posted on the Internet, according to a report released Wednesday.Los Angeles police accountability expert Merrick Bobb found that the decision to use the Taser on student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was "unnecessary, avoidable and excessive."

The findings are at odds with an earlier inquiry by UCLA Police Chief Karl Ross, who cleared Officer Terrence Duren and two colleagues of any wrongdoing.Tabatabainejad, then a 23-year-old senior at UCLA, was in the campus library one night last November when a security guard asked him to provide identification during a routine check to make sure everyone in the library after 11 p.m. was a student or otherwise authorized to be there.

Tabatabainejad, a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, refused repeated requests to provide his identification, explaining later that he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance.In an ensuing confrontation with university police, Tabatabainejad was shocked at least three times with a Taser when he failed to get on his feet and walk out of the library as officers demanded.

Much of the encounter was captured by students with cellphones or digital cameras. Some of the footage was posted on http://www.youtube.comand/ drew viewers from around the world. After student protests, a flood of angry e-mails and calls from concerned parents, then-Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams asked Bobb to conduct an independent review.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Africans Inspired By Civil Rights Tour

There may be much that we as African Americans have
to learn about Africa but when it comes to civil rights the
shoe is on the on the other foot. African exchange students
are touring the country studying the civil rights movement
with hopes of returning to their homelands and putting their
own movement together. Africa may be the cradle of mankind
but when it comes to civil rights the struggle is just starting.


College student Tabitha Njeri Nyoro wants more political and social empowerment and access to education for women in her native Kenya.

Her dreams of social justice were just that until this week's bus tour of historic civil rights movement sites lit a fire in her heart to do more than just talk about it.

"I should be the change I want to see in the world," Nyoro, who studies education at Catholic University of Eastern Africa, said Tuesday at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb. "People like Martin Luther King didn't sit back and wait for the change to come."
There is probably much for us to learn about our
african roots but when it comes to civil rights the
shoe is on the other foot. African exchange students
are studying the civil rights movement with hopes
of taking what they've learned back to their home-
lands. Africa may be the cradle of mankind but it
has a long way to go in its civil rights struggle.


Nyoro, 23, is one of 19 African exchange students from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa traveling from Fayetteville, Ark., to Washington studying the civil rights movement, American social justice, leadership and community development.

The seven-day tour is scheduled to wrap up in Washington on Thursday after a stop at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, N.C., to learn more about the student sit-in movement.
They are following routes taken by the Freedom Riders, student activists who traveled South in the early 1960s to challenge segregation.

The group visited Atlanta's King Center after stops at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham earlier Tuesday. Previous stops included the National Civil Rights Museum and Davies Manor Plantation in Memphis and Central High School in Little Rock.
The Memphis museum is home to the Lorraine Motel where King was assassinated in 1968 and Central High was the site 50 years ago of a historic school integration battle.

The tour is part of an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the Academy of Educational Development.
Spring International Language Center at the University of Arkansas coordinated the tour designed to give student leaders participating in the exchange program at the school's Fayetteville campus a sense of place in their study of the movement and the South.

"Sometimes the significance of events becomes much clearer when you are in the physical space where it happened," said Alannah Massey, a program assistant. Within just a few days, we would have visited Martin Luther King's birth and death places. The significance certainly hasn't been lost on anyone."
Their stop Tuesday at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the site of a 1963 racially motivated bombing that killed four young girls, left Nigerian Fatima Mohammed, 24, traumatized.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/