In this photo taken by a neighbor Thurs., July 16, 2009, Henry Louis Gates Jr. center, the director of Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, is arrested at his home in Cambridge, Mass. Police say they were called to the home of Gates after a woman reported seeing a man try to pry open the front door. (AP Photo/Demotix Images, B. Carter)

Few are surprised by Gates’ treatment

Melanie R. Holmes and Arlene Edmonds
Tribune Staff Writers

The fire is out, but the smoke remains thickly engulfed around the controversial arrest of African American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in front of his home last Thursday in Cambridge, Mass. And, although the charge of disorderly conduct has been dropped, many within the Black community here and across the country are still shaken over the incident.

To civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the issue is bigger than Gates. According to him, the criminal justice system at large needs to be addressed.

“In a caste system, there is no distinction of class,” he told the Tribune on Thursday. “The class distinction is irrelevant on the racial caste. If they just focus on Dr. Gates and don’t focus on the criminal justice system, you trivialize the crisis.”

Citing the murder of Amadou Diallo, the beating of Rodney King and Gates’ arrest, Jackson referred to the pattern of police brutality in America as a “state of emergency” and is calling on the Justice Department to take action.

Gates is the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and served for 15 years as chairman of what is now the Department of African and African American Research. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1991 and holds one of 20 prestigious “university professors” positions at the school. He also was host of “African American Lives,” a PBS show about the family histories of prominent U.S. Blacks. Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997.

“You feel disenfranchised,” Jackson said. “It’s not enough to say ‘oops, we’re sorry.’ This behavior is fairly typical. It’s more popular than a coincidence.”

Local political insider Nia Meeks said Gates’ arrest is simply a continuation of the historical harassment of African-American property owners.

“If it can happen to someone who’s internationally known, what does it say to what can happen to me, even in the age of Obama?” she asked. “You can look at it a few ways. A lot of people don’t know their neighbors. What [the witness] saw, evidently, was a man or two who she didn’t believe belonged in that neighborhood or in that house. The police are supposed to respond to such things. But after it’s determined they belong in that house, the case is closed.”

Optimistically, Meeks said the situation could spark the beginning of dialogue between people of color and law enforcement officials regarding effective communication and proper police conduct.

“Many people believe we have overcome because of Obama,” she said. “But the nation still has racial tensions.”

The incident, the arrest
Gates is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University late last week. Cambridge police were called to the home on Thursday afternoon after a woman reported seeing a man “wedging his shoulder into the front door as to pry the door open,” according to a police report.

An officer ordered the man to identify himself, and Gates refused, according to the report. Gates began calling the officer a racist and said repeatedly, “This is what happens to Black men in America.”

Officers said they tried to calm down the 58-year-old academic, who responded, “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” according to the police report.
Gates was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance and arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Gates referred comment to his lawyer, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, who was not immediately available. Cambridge police declined to comment and the Middlesex district attorney’s office said it could not do so until after Gates’ arraignment. The woman who reported Gates did not return a message on Monday.

Gates is Black in America
Gates became the star of CNN’s long-planned “Black in America 2” which debuted on Wednesday night, according to Richard Prince of Journal-isms. During “Moment of Truth: Countdown to Black in America 2,” a live event broadcast from Times Square, Gates recounted for CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien his arrest at his Cambridge home. He noted that the mayor “called and apologized” and said he was waiting for the police officer to “tell the truth about what he did,” and not “the distortions and fabrications in the police report.” The officer insists he followed proper procedures.

Gates did not rule out legal action and said he had no animosity toward the neighbor who reported seeing two Black men with backpacks trying to break into the home. Gates was with a driver, returning from the airport. In fact, Gates said he was happy for the vigilance, because he has valuables in the house.

Gates was originally scheduled because he had helped radio host Tom Joyner trace his ancestry, which included relatives who were wrongly executed in the killing of a Confederate veteran. The two men said they were appealing for redress from South Carolina’s governor, Mark Sanford.

The two-hour debut of “Black in America 2” began at 9 p.m., after President Obama’s 8 p.m. news conference, which focused on health care.

“I don’t blame Gates for viewing himself as the victim of racial profiling,” editorial page editor Dick Hughes, who is white, wrote in a column scheduled for the Salem Statesman Journal in Oregon. “History is on his side. When minority motorists talk about being stopped for ‘Driving While Black” or ‘Driving While Hispanic,’ history supports them. When I was a police reporter in the 1970s, doing ride-a-longs with officers, they told me how they profiled drivers in deciding whom to stop. Even if that profiling wasn’t an official part of department policy, it was passed from one generation of officers to the next. Yes, times have changed, and the U.S. has elected its first Black president. But such history dies hard.”

Word on the street
Many in the Delaware Valley still have something to say about what transpired when Gates was approached and later arrested by police. His arrest was the topic of conversation when Concerned Black Men (CBM) board members met for breakfast at Cornbread & Coffee in West Oak Lane. Harvey Crudup, the president of the Cheltenham Area NAACP and CBM board chairman, and CBM’s vice chairman Jim Newton of Potts Grove, were among those engaged in an animated discussion about what happened.

“I am surprised that Mr. Gates was surprised,” said Crudup, who was also the first African American deputy police commissioner of operations for the Philadelphia Police Department. “Sometimes these things happen so that we, as a race, realize that racism is still alive. We can never get so relaxed that we think everything is okay. In a way, it was good that this happened to heighten this awareness. Of course it never should have happened, but since it did we have to learn from it.”

Newton concurred. He often tells the younger males in his family that whenever they are pulled over or approached by a white policeman to be calm and polite. He recommends they answer questions by saying “yes, sir” and “no, sir” particularly if the officer is enticing them to anger.

“As Black people, we have to always realize that no matter how far you go you are still Black to racists,” Newton said. “Really, I think that because he was in Massachusetts they just arrested him for disorderly conduct. If he had been in some parts of the Philadelphia area he might have gotten beaten down as they were handcuffing him. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and I always knew when it came to dealing with white police officers you took nothing for granted. I vividly remember the Rizzo years when police brutality was a reality. That’s something we should never forget.”

Both Crudup and Newton commented the election of President Barack Obama has caused racial animosity to escalate. Crudup pointed out that despite the fact that Obama is qualified for the position, is educated and intelligent “some can’t stand it” and will take it out on someone like Gates.

“I think this type of thing is happening with increased frequency,” Crudup said.

“Just because Obama is president does not mean racism has disappeared either,” Newton said. “When you look at what Sonia Sotomayor had to go through you can see the racist hostility. I hope that Hispanics, too, see that racism is still a reality in America. In a way, what happened to Gates and Sotomayor is a wake-up call for people of color.”

Scholar and retired history professor Edward Robinson, Jr. has his own spin on the Gates arrest. On one hand, he feels this is “a typical thing that happens to Blacks every day in America” and that it does not diminish once an African American gets educated or moves into the upper echelon of society. Conversely, he also believes that Gates was deliberately harassed by police officers who were well aware of who he was and where he resided.

“I think what infuriated Gates was that he was not recognized as the dominant figure in our society that he is,” Robinson said. “Yet there is another side to this story. Many people are angry with Gates because of the treasures of Timbuktu. White scholars have tried to say that Africans were illiterate and uneducated savages. In 1584, those in Timbuktu, part of the Songhai Empire, who we are descendants of, buried thousands of scholarly books, legal manuscripts, medical treatises, and all kinds of things so that future generations who invaded them would find these trunks to show all they’ve done. Gates wrote about what these scholars said in his thesis. So, when he went to Timbuktu and unearthed these treasures, dating back to 1584, he cried. It finally proved what those white scholars said was wrong. He had evidence of the truth. Some have been trying to silence him about this ever since. You can’t negate the fact that this had something to do with it.”

For Community College of Philadelphia English professor Gwen Remsen, hearing the details of the Gates’ scenario was disturbing. The local radio host and author of “I Thought My Soul Was Wounded,” said that she finds any display of injustice, particularly from those in authority, to be troubling.

“In this instance with Dr. Gates, it serves as reminder,” she said. “We must continue to work with police commissioners in their efforts to train police officers. The struggle is not over. Police officers need to learn how to treat all of its citizens in municipalities with dignity and respect.”
Reports from The Associated Press, CNN, Richard Prince’s Journal-isms contributed to this report.

His indelible impact on today’s biggest star

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

Many times imitated but never duplicated, Michael Jackson is mourned by millions around the world, including entertainers who say their careers would be nothing if not for the impact of the 13-time Grammy award winner.

Jackson’s meticulous moves are conspicuously coordinated into dance routines of countless contemporary artists, and his sound echoes throughout today’s R&B, both of which have boosted artists to the top of the charts but have failed to dethrone Jackson’s reign as King of Pop.

His most popular protégés say his talent will remain untouchable.

“This loss has deeply saddened me,” Usher told MTV News the night of Jackson’s death on June 25. “I would not be the artist, performer and philanthropist I am today without the influence of Michael. I have great admiration and respect for him. With music, he made it possible for people like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama to impact the mainstream world. His legacy is unparalleled. Michael Jackson will never be forgotten.”

Calling his passing a tragic loss, Beyoncé learned Jackson 5 hits such as “I Wanna Be Where You Are” as a child, helping her blossom from the lead singer of former girl-group Destiny’s Child to an international icon.

“The incomparable Michael Jackson has made a bigger impact on music than any other artist in the history of music,” she said in an interview. “He was magic. He was what we all strive to be. He will always be the King of Pop. Life is not about how many breaths you take, but about how many moments in life that take your breath away. For anyone who has ever seen, felt or heard his art, we are all honored to have been alive in this generation to experience the magic of Michael Jackson.”

Proof that Jackson’s music transcended racial barriers, singer Justin Timberlake, formerly of pop group ‘NSYNC, offered his condolences to the Jackson family on his Web site and described the depth of the loss the world is suffering as a result of Jackson succumbing to cardiac arrest at 50 years old.

“We have lost a genius and a true ambassador of not only pop music, but of all music,” Timberlake wrote. “He has been an inspiration to multiple generations, and I will always cherish the moments I shared with him on stage and all of the things I learned about music from him and the time we spent together. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones.”

Singer/songwriter Ne-Yo was working on an album with Jackson; a project he regrets will not be completed. Nonetheless, he is thankful for the time he was able to spend with his idol.

“I feel that Michael Jackson has done enough music to basically live forever,” Ne-Yo said during an interview at the BET Awards last Sunday. “He’s an immortal human being. He’s the man who made it possible for me to be on the stage. I mourn his death, but celebrate his life.”

By mimicking Jackson’s pop-lock routines, Chris Brown received praise from the late singer after a tribute performance during the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, in which Brown recreated Jackson’s groundbreaking “Thriller” music video.

“Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer,” Brown said in a statement. “I am devastated by this great loss, and I will continue to be humbled and inspired by his legacy. Michael will be deeply missed, but never forgotten. He’s the greatest … the best ever. No one will ever be better.”

Kim Dorsey

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

If HIV had a face, it would not look like Kim Dorsey’s. Her smooth, brown skin accentuated the brightness of her smile, and the glow in her eyes was as illuminating as her floral-patterned skirt-set.

While hosting Germantown Settlement’s annual AIDS awareness event, Dorsey’s appearance failed to broadcast her status as one of the quickly growing number of Black women with the “dirty people disease.”

“I don’t look like I have HIV,” she said. “And that’s exactly my point. You don’t know until you get tested.”

Shuffling with her cane around the Temptations banquet hall on Wednesday, Dorsey urged others to do what she did not — practice safe sex.

Currently in charge of Germantown Settlement’s outreach program, Dorsey, 52, spent almost 20 years struggling with drug addiction and resorted to prostitution to fund her habit. After several misdemeanor charges, she was sentenced to a six-month recovery program and consented to an HIV test in 2003.

“When I got my results back, I knew by the way she was looking at me that I had something,” Dorsey clearly recalls. “She looked at me like I was a germ, like it was my last day on Earth. It was just a cold, cold look and feeling. That messed me up. Just that look and how you’re treated made me go on the journey I’m on now.”

Dorsey is a certified HIV/AIDS specialist and organizes support groups for people living with the virus. She says her life is in her hands and grins each time she mentions that her HIV status is undetectable.

“What God gave me the ability to do is announce that I have HIV,” she said. “It’s not because I’m proud. I want people to know it can happen to them. Whatever you do, protect yourself. That’s my motto.”

Out of the estimated one million people in the United States with HIV/AIDS, 250,000 are unaware that they are infected and another 250,000 are aware, but are not being treated.

Black women make up 60 percent of all women in the country with HIV/AIDS, and one out of every 50 Black males carry the illness. Forty-eight percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States are Black. The Philadelphia HIV/AIDS rate is five times the national average and one and a half times the rate in New York City.

“Us Black men and Black women need to get it together,” Dorsey said. “Black people think it’s not going to happen to them. Some of them are just too lazy to find out, and it’s free. HIV/AIDS is in the gay and white community, but they’re on top of getting their free tests. We won’t do it.”

Bebashi Director Gary Bell is urging African Americans, especially adolescents, to participate in National HIV Testing Day Saturday, in which organizations throughout the country will focus on HIV testing and awareness. Dedicated to serving the Black HIV/AIDS community in Philadelphia since 1985, Bebashi will be conducting rapid HIV tests Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Althea Gibson Tennis and Community Center at 1000-38 W. Girard Ave.

“Anyone can come,” Bell said. “We are just trying to target adolescents because they don’t get tested. Half of all new infections in the United States are under 25. There’ll be a DJ, karaoke, contests, food, games and we have rapid HIV testing at the same time.”

In his 22 years at Bebashi, Bell said he has seen the lives of his clients improve over the years due to increased awareness and better medication, which has been a “satisfying” feeling in an often “frustrating” job.

“HIV — if treated long enough by experienced HIV physicians — can be treated much like a chronic disease,” he said. “If you get to it late, it’s a different story. But the bottom line is, you don’t want this.”

“Black people don’t come out of the womb with pants sagging, ready to fight,” Hill said. “We need to cultivate Black men differently." -Photo by Hiroko Tanaka/Tribune Staff Photographer

Well-known professor leaves hometown for post at Columbia

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

The fact Marc Lamont Hill is a nationally syndicated columnist, commentator for The Washington Post and The New York Times, and is a regular contributor on Fox News might make him exceptional, but he rejects the accusation of being “the exception.”

Let him tell it, he’s just fortunate.

Not even his fancy degree from the University of Pennsylvania, from which he earned a Ph.D. with distinction, makes him any different than the kids he grew up with.

Still, he’s the only one from his North and West Philadelphia neighborhoods that Ebony Magazine named as one of America’s top 30 Black leaders under 30 years old in 2005. A self-declared “freedom fighter,” Hill humbly attributes his success as an “activist scholar” to the wisdom he received within his community as a child.

“I had access to human resources,” he said. “Sometimes it was just the woman up the street or the brother at the church. It helped me develop a sense of self and Black pride. It helped shape me as an intellectual.”

Formerly an assistant professor of urban education and American studies at Temple University, Hill is scheduled to transfer his expertise in hip-hop culture, politics, sexuality, education and religion to Columbia University in the fall as associate professor of education and anthropology at Teachers College. While he considers his New York job offer a great opportunity, Hill said he is doing work that all Black men are born capable of achieving.

“Black people don’t come out of the womb with pants sagging, ready to fight,” he said. “We need to cultivate Black men differently. We need to create a world where education is not seen as an enemy of racial authenticity. We have to create a different notion of what it means to be Black.”

Partially blaming profitability for the saturation of Black women dancing suggestively in music videos and Black men portrayed as thugs on television, Hill said those images are only pieces of the problem hindering progression within the Black community.

“The fundamental problem is the idea that Black people are a full human being is still a new idea,” Hill said. “My responsibility as a Black scholar is to show that we are humans.”

Hill believes Blacks need to see a way out of the struggle and has taken on the responsibility of bringing hope back to oppressed communities.

“One thing I try to do is to spotlight the brilliance of everyday people,” he said. “I’ve always been able to locate magnificence in the everyday. When you’re able to see magnificence in the everyday, you’ll find the beauty and possibilities of a community.”

Although he was always interested in social justice, it wasn’t until scholar Michael Eric Dyson spoke during Hill’s freshman year at Morehouse College that he realized the endless possibilities for his own life.

“He was speaking intellectually, and the next thing I know, he was spitting Nas and Biggie,” Hill said. “That was the moment that I saw myself as being able to do this.”

But it was through reading the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Assata Shakur that Hill truly realized the power of reading and writing. Consequently, he has published his own works including “Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity.” He also expects to complete his literary memoir by the fall and release a manuscript titled “Knowledge of Self: Race, Masculinity, and the Politics of Reading” thereafter.

“It doesn’t make sense for me to have a full tank of gas and not go anywhere,” Hill said. “One of the things I love about being a public scholar is that I take on the issues of the day. My job is to plead our case in the public in front of doctors, judges and lawyers. I’m out here as an activist, a public defender of sorts. I’m just a small part of a big movement.”

Condoleezza Rice- Photo by Hiroko Tanaka/Tribune Staff Photographer

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tells students on Monday to find their passion

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

The hush that fell over the auditorium at William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs was broken by an applause that poured down like heavy rain when the first Black female Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made her grand entrance. Greeted by about 200 students, it was with them that she shared a lesson that took her years to learn: The importance of finding one’s passion in life.

Years before becoming the author of several books, serving as the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and teaching politics at Stanford University, Rice learned to play the piano at age 3.

“It was always clear in my mind that I was going to be a great concert musician,” she said.

Then, after seeing students master compositions in hours that took her almost a year to grasp, Rice realized that becoming a pianist might not be her calling during her sophomore year at the University of Denver. But what she thought to be a “crisis” at the time turned out to be an introduction to her true love.

“One day, I walked into a class of international politics and I found my passion,” she said. “I knew I found it when I walked along Red Square. That’s what led me to work with George H.W. Bush.”

Many people thought it was odd, Rice said. They wondered what in the world a young Black girl from Alabama was doing studying Russian. But after beating the segregated South, she wasn’t willing to let anyone tell her who she could be.

“I think the very reason I am standing here today, having served as the National Security Advisor and Stanford professor, is I had people in my life who valued education,” Rice said. “My family valued education not just because it was a good way to get a job. It’s a chance to find out who you are and make yourself into something you might not have been without an education.”

Encouraging students to challenge themselves and view the world as their platform, Rice told them to be ready for the endless possibilities their lives may bring.

“Never let anyone tell you, you shouldn’t be interested in your passion just because of who you are and where you came from,” she said. “Stay open to what your passion might be. If you already found your passion, more power to you. If you haven’t found your passion, it may find you.”

Officials at Philadelphia’s Special Victims Unit confirmed 13-year-old Nikasia Nowell, who was missing for eight days, was not abducted.

“She went with the guy willingly,” said Sgt. Robert Sutula. “She admitted she had consensual sex with him, but she can’t consent.”

The police also said they are looking to charge the suspect with statutory sexual assault, interference with the custody of a minor and corrupting the morals of a minor.

“I think the fact that this individual [Nikasia] is back in the hands of police would cause the individual [the suspect] to hide,” Capt. John Darby said. “That’s one of our concerns.”

Nowell gave the police several possible names of the man she was with. Darby stated the SVU is investigating all possibilities and pursuing other leads. Uncertain when Nowell met the man, who is still at large, he said the teen was “very hesitant” to get police involved.

“From my knowledge, she met the male somewhere downtown, around 12th and Market, near The Gallery,” he said. “I don’t believe there had been any prior contact. What we do know is that she willingly went with this male to a residence and stayed at the residence for some time.”

Nowell’s mother, Stephanie Nowell, was unavailable for comment for this report, but previously denied unofficial reports that her daughter ran away for discipline reasons. Nikasia went missing on March 12.

Because Nikasia was not thought to be in serious bodily harm, an Amber Alert was not issued during the search for her return.

“An Amber Alert is when the detective believes the child is missing and in danger,” said Philadelphia Police Spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore on Friday. “The purpose was to locate missing persons within hours of an abduction. Just because she’s a missing 13-year-old in no way brings it to Amber Alert.”

Darby added if every missing child were put on Amber Alert, the system would be “compromised.”

The Philadelphia Tribune was the only newspaper in the region to cover this story.

Nikasia Nowell

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

The reunion between Stephanie Nowell and her daughter was bittersweet.

After missing for eight days, 13-year-old Nikasia Nowell was released by her alleged abductor yesterday morning after he raped her, said her aunt Rosalie Williams.

Calling Nowell around 7:30 a.m., the suspect said he would drop the teen off at Broad and Wyoming streets. According to Williams, Nikasia later identified the man to police as John Nelsen, 44, who is still at large. Philadelphia’s Special Victim’s Unit is investigating the case.

As she did every morning, Nikasia left home on Thursday, March 12, to walk the few blocks to Wagner Middle School. Only this time, she did not make it there.

An anonymous source from the 35th Police District claims the eighth-grader ran away from home after getting in trouble for cutting class — a possibility the family rejects.

“Not my baby,” Nowell said Friday. “That’s not her character.”

Nikasia’s close-knit family assured police that everything was fine in the household, as usual, the day before she disappeared from her West Oak Lane neighborhood.

“I last saw her at 7:30 before she left for school,” Nowell said. “She said ‘Mom, I’m getting ready to leave. I’ll see you later. I love you.’ I said, ‘I love you, too. Make sure you call me when you get home from school.’ When she never called me when she got home, that’s what triggered me off.”

Called “a typical teenager,” Nikasia’s family said she loves to dance, listen to music, talk on the phone and describes her as fun loving and friendly.

“Too friendly,” said Williams. “Everybody’s her friend. You walk up and smile at her, you’re her friend.”

Initially, Nikasia’s family suspected she may have met an older man who deceitfully won her trust. Rumors alleged she was with a 30-year-old man she met on MySpace claiming to know the whereabouts of her father, who left when she was 2 days old, but no evidence has been found to support this claim.

While Nowell is uncertain if Nikasia has a MySpace page, a phone call last Wednesday confirmed she was with an older man, who introduced himself as “Jay.”

“He sounded nervous and scared,” Nowell said. “He kept saying ‘I don’t want anything to do with this, I don’t want anything to do with this. I’ll call and let you know where I drop her off.’”

Nowell said she does not know the alleged abductor, who allowed Nikasia to say “Hi, mom” before disconnecting the phone when asked where she was.

Police later traced the call to a pay phone at a Getty gas station on Front and Champlost streets.

Thinking she had to wait 24 hours, Nowell did not notify the police until the day after her daughter came up missing. When the police arrived, she was allegedly told that nothing could be done until 72 hours had passed because of Nikasia’s age.

“They told me, ‘Well, we’re not going to go right now and look for her because she’s not 10 or under,’” Nowell said. “I’m upset my daughter is not here and you’re going to tell me that? That’s not what I needed to hear at that time.”

This was the first of many exasperating encounters Nowell and her family had with the 35th District, which they say took a week to actively respond to the case.

On Friday, Detective Collins from the 35th District (who withheld her first name) said she was following leads provided by Nikasia’s family and the teen was added to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Philadelphia Police Spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore stated that Nikasia was added to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), which would identify her as a missing child if an authority stopped her.

Because detectives did not believe Nikasia was in danger of serious bodily harm, an Amber Alert was not issued, but Vanore said that Nowell should not have been told the search for Nikasia would have to wait 72 hours, as the first six hours “of an abduction” are the most crucial.

“After that, it becomes dangerous for the victim,” he said. “Whenever someone is reported, we take it right away and we run on it.”

Thankful for the community support they received Nowell and her family asked anyone who may have information on the case to step forward.

“He’s still out there and he’ll do it again,” Williams said. “We don’t want this same thing to happen to another 13-year-old.”

Information on Nikasia can be posted at www.findnikasia.weebly.com or call (215) 927-0533, (215) 548-3037.

The Philadelphia Tribune was the only newspaper in the region to cover this story.

Contractors, construction workers and union memebers allege that Black workers have been excluded from the $700 million Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion project. -Photo by Hiroko Tanaka/Tribune Staff Photographer

Sealed lips and solemn expressions punctuated the slogans protestors displayed on their picket signs.

“Things must change.” “Blacks need work, too.” “African Americans built America.”

Contractors, construction workers and union members silently demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority Monday morning on Broad and Race streets, alleging that Black workers are being excluded from the $700 million expansion project.

“It has always been hard for African Americans in this industry to be gainfully employed,” said Anthony Fullard, 47. “They are systematically shut out solely because of the color of their skin. This is why we’re left to take a stand at this stage in the project, because we see where it’s headed. African Americans will continue to stand on the sideline.”

Fullard said the protests will continue to disrupt the Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion site until African Americans sign contracts, while Executive of Project Expansion Joseph Resta argued that Black construction workers are clearly visible.

“Historically, there have been racial barriers for African-American contractors in Philadelphia,” Resta said. “But in this project, we are working diligently to make sure they are operating on an equal playing field.”

But that’s not how Fullard sees it. He says the convention center has broken promises to Black contracting firms and reneged on agreements made in minority outreach sessions.

“They don’t really offer [African Americans] the same opportunities that they would to a white firm,” Fullard said. “It repeats year after year. They have white firms not even from this city bid on work and sign contracts.”

According to Amendment Bill #070994, the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority agreed to make its best effort to maintain a minimum 20 percent of African-American contractors. However, African-American construction firms participate in less than 1 percent of Philadelphia construction industry revenues.

Mayor Michael Nutter has also caught flack from the disgruntled workers.

“Working in construction is struggling for civil rights for African Americans all over again.” said Denise Mathuthu, 54, an apprenticeship program manager for Technical Assistance Center (TAC). “We’re in the 1950s all over again, at least in this city, which is unbelievable with a Black mayor.”

Darrell Choates, owner of Choates General Contracting, claims the convention center ignored a verbal agreement to contract with his company.

“I talked to [Michael Nutter] nine months ago about barriers for minority contractors and he hasn’t done anything today,” he said. “The whole system is corrupt, period. The pay-to-play is still existing.”

Although representatives of the mayor’s office were unavailable at Tribune press time, Nutter is presenting his report on diversity in the construction industry on March 17 at 10:30 a.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Monday’s protest is the first of many according to Joseph Fraizer, 47, who says the demonstrations will continue throughout Philadelphia until discrimination in the city’s construction industry ceases to exist.

“Somewhere along the line, we got to put a stop to this,” Fraizer said. “There hasn’t been anything done in the past, just enough to stop picketing. They might throw you a bone and it goes back to the same thing. Not this time. This is going to be ongoing. It’s not going to fall through the cracks. At some point, this construction site will be shut down.”

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

An African American solider in the Vietnam War

A white man’s war, but a Black man’s fight is what Martin Luther King controversially called the Vietnam War. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the conflict in Southeast Asia introduced African Americans to combat in higher numbers than any previous American war. Many Blacks raged against the idea of killing others who, like them, were in passionate pursuit of freedom. However, the draft often had the final say. While Blacks made up 13 percent of the U.S. population between 1961 and 1966, they accounted for an estimated 20 percent of soldiers killed in action.

But for survivors, living after the war was perhaps harder than dying. Burdened by the physical and psychological aftermath, these men dedicated more than a few years of service to their country. Inevitably, they sacrificed the rest of their lives.

“Nobody realizes what we went through,” said Julius Bennett, 59, a first sergeant and infantryman from 1968 to 1970. “The war did a traumatic thing on a lot of African Americans. What we had left in us, the war took out of us. Every now and then I have flashbacks, waking up sweating. You have problems going to sleep because you can’t relax your mind.”

After serving 20 years in the military and retiring from the police force, he is now a service officer for vet centers. Bennett volunteered to enter the war right out of high school, figuring he would be drafted sooner or later. Wounded twice, he never thought he would come out of combat alive.

“A lot of times, I wished I didn’t make it back,” he said. “I’ve experienced a lot of terrible things. There are a lot of things we did that you never forget — guys getting killed, brains getting splattered out. I wrote home and told them forget about me, I’m going to die here. They teach you to shoot, to fight, to kill, but survival is on you.”

Survival has been instinctive for Black Americans since slavery, Bennett said, a virtue he believes Black soldiers used to strengthen the U.S. military during Vietnam.

“African Americans being in the war made the U.S. better fighting personnel,” he said. “The tough things we had to go through made us tougher. Because we are survivors, we made them survivors which made the U.S. army stronger.”

Despite their contributions, Bennett found the military to be far from colorblind. As the first war the U.S. fought with a fully integrated military, African Americans battled their rivals, as well as racism.

“There was a lot of discrimination in the military,” Bennett said. “The way they treated us was terrible. We went through pure hell.”

When stationed in Alabama, he recalls Black soldiers thrown in dumpsters, which were struck with baseball bats repeatedly until the sound caused their eardrums to burst. He also remembers receiving uncompassionate care when in need of minor medical attention, and separate accommodations for Black and white soldiers.

“ ‘You fought the guy in the field because you had to. Don’t think that because you’re out here fighting with us you’re going to be with us,’ ” Bennett was told by white soldiers. “Here I am fighting the same war the white man’s fighting and I don’t get the same rights. We ain’t getting nothing but sickness and crippled.”

Conversely, as a paratrooper during the war in 1965 to 1967, Charles Sanders, 63, said there were problems in the military, but none of them were racial. From his experience, the only colors that mattered were red, white and blue.

“When the stuff hit the fan, it didn’t matter the pigment of your skin,” Sanders said. “What did matter was ‘help!’ Your human instincts took over.”

Following the path of his two older brothers, Sanders volunteered for the draft straight from high school out of a sense of obligation. Joining him were two friends.

“Three went over but one came back,” he said. “I went through a lot of survivor’s guilt. There were a lot of casualties, a lot of KIA’s — killed in action. I saw a lot. I learned a lot. There were times when we didn’t have anything to do. There were times when all hell broke loose.”

It was under those chaotic conditions that retired U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Colonel Toby Bryant, 64, led the sixth infantry division of Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.

“You had to be quick on your feet because situations changed in a heartbeat,” Bryant said. “I was responsible for my men. My motto was leadership by example. My men loved me because they knew I cared.”

By joining the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) as a student at Tuskegee University, Bryant entered the war ranked a second lieutenant. He was the sole-surviving son after his father was killed in the war.

“I wanted to go over there and lead men in combat,” he said. “I asked for infantry. We had a chance, on a large scale, to show our capability as African Americans. One of the things we did was show that we could operate in combat situations. We could handle it; we could get missions accomplished. Fortunately, I’m here to talk about it.”

Despite battling prostate cancer caused by exposure to agent orange, a chemical used to remove leaves from forests that hid the opposing forces, Sanders says African Americans assisted U.S. military efforts in Vietnam in no greater way than by losing their lives.

“A lot of people forget what the Vietnam War veterans did,” he said. “I get really angry. You have to back the troops. When people can’t even fly a flag on Veteran’s Day and say ‘I appreciate what you did,’ I just don’t understand. How much is it going to hurt?”

Hurt by the “callousness and detachment” he feels many people display toward veterans, Bennett said he was spat on when he returned from Vietnam. Even as the recipient of several honors including the Vietnam Service Metal, Vietnam Campaign Medal and Combat Infantry Badge, it was later when he was shown respect by civilians.

“Now, people see me, shake my hand and thank me for my service,” Bennett said.

Nonetheless, he says without hesitance that Vietnam was the worst place he had ever been and that the war is one that should not have been waged.

“Walking through hell with gasoline draws on — that’s what Vietnam was like,” Bennett said. “You got to hold this on your shoulders for the rest of your life. No one is the same person after Vietnam, whether they’re in the rear or out in the field. It’s still in us. It doesn’t go away. I wasn’t supposed to come back but I’m happy I’m here. When you wake up and you get out the bed, you’re doing good. You thank God that you can do that.”

Academy at Palumbo Principal Adrienne Wallace-Chew and students

Melanie R. Holmes
Tribune Staff Writer

One of the newest high schools in the district is also one of the best. Deemed by some as the Central of South Philly, Academy at Palumbo students denounces the title and cling to their individuality. Besides, they’d much rather be referred to as a “utopian society of scholars.”

“We’re the perfect little package,” says 11th-grader Imahni Ellison, vice president of the junior class. “All together, I think the Academy is just a great place to learn. You always have someone to go to if you need someone to support you. Between the teachers, students, academics and extra curricular programs, this is just the perfect place to be.”

Opened in 2006 as a special admissions high school, Palumbo has grown a grade each school year and will have its first senior class in the fall of 2009. The school’s intimate population of about 350 ninth through 11th graders is a unique aspect of the school, according to students.

“One thing that makes a difference is we’re so small,” 11th-grader Aleah Kenner said, a second violinist for all-city orchestra. “Since we are small, we are a lot closer and our teachers look out for us a bit more.”

Adding to the student’s enthusiasm is the high caliber of teacher quality. Proud to say that some of their teachers double as college professors, students appreciate the academic aptitude of their teachers as well as the personal investments they make in the students.

“They’re really supportive,” said 11-grader Konica McGhee-Fischer, who is a member of the citywide student government. “They really got us in line and are passionate about our futures. The teachers are close enough to you to notice when you have a change in personality and come in and they try to fix it.”

Calling his teachers a second set of parents, 11th-grader Brandon Alston says his class established a special connection with faculty members by being the first group of learners to matriculate through the school.

“They’re happy when we succeed,” said Alston, a member of the publications club in charge of the yearbook and student newspaper. “They really trust us and depend on us and always expect the best of us.”

But students also expect the best from each other. Leaning on one another for support and motivation, Palumbo students generously offer comfort and encouragement to peers in need. Designed specifically for this purpose, Spirit Week was held in the school’s auditorium to tighten the bonds among the student body. Additionally, many students participate in a round of good morning text messages to spread cheer at the beginning of each school day.

“We care about how people are doing,” said 11th-grader John Glenn III, an all-city choir member. “Even if they don’t know the answer, they’ll offer to help.”

Glenn also finds that his class does its best to help students from the ninth and 10th grades — despite the friendly competition of having the highest attendance records, benchmark scores and number of students on honor roll. While the “winning” grade for each category seems to be up for dispute, in the end, each class is focused on a shared aspiration: college admission. Palumbo students take the PSAT their freshman year, take SAT preparation classes, recently attended a college fair and have the option of enrolling in a wide variety of advanced placement courses in which they will receive college credits.

“We have a counselor here who always has information for college,” said 10th-grader Charles Hayden. “They really try to keep our mind focused on college.”

Chinese, European history and calculus are only a few of the advanced placement courses available to students, which they speak of with conspicuous excitement. Furthermore, students will have the choice of participating in a dual enrollment program during their senior year in which they will finish the remainder of their high school classes and take college courses simultaneously.

“We are that much more ahead when we go to college,” said 11th-grader Veronica Schad, a member of all-city choir.

Although they are eagerly looking forward to their futures, while at Palumbo, the loaded list of clubs, sports and programs helps students maintain a busy schedule. The Academy boasts of softball, bowling, badminton and chess teams, a baseball team with nine wins, one loss and one tie, an undefeated girls varsity volleyball team and a football team that also had a successful year.

“We have a partnership with Furness High School so we were able to compete in the PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) tournament,” said 11th-grader Donovan Jones, a left guard for the football team. “We won six in six and made it to the playoffs.”

Palumbo also has a rock band, B-Boy Club — which is not to be mistaken for break dancing, according to 10th-grader Samuel Tran — drama club, step squad, African Drum Circle, choir, band, orchestra and much more.

“My students are at the center of the school,” said Principal Adrienne Wallace-Chew. “We promote them. This school is a wonderful place. We’re caring people here. We care about our students and their successes.”