The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
December 27, 2009
Statement by the President on the Passing of Percy Sutton
Percy Sutton was a true hero to African Americans in New York City and around the country. We will remember him for his service to the country as a Tuskegee Airman, to New York State as a state assemblyman, to New York City as Manhattan Borough President, and to the community of Harlem in leading the effort to revitalize the world renowned Apollo Theater. His life-long dedication to the fight for civil rights and his career as an entrepreneur and public servant made the rise of countless young African Americans possible. Michelle and I extend our deepest condolences to his family on this sad day.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Federal Communications Administration Pays Tribute To Percy E. Sutton
STATEMENT BY FCC COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS ON THE PASSING OF
PERCY E. SUTTON
With the passing of Percy E. Sutton, New York City has lost a preeminent leader. Mr.
Sutton was known to New Yorkers, and particularly those in his beloved Harlem, as a lawyer,
civil rights leader and the long-serving Manhattan Borough President. Yet it is his role as a
broadcaster and media entrepreneur that represents a larger, and perhaps, more lasting legacy for
the nation at large. When Sutton and others purchased radio station WLIB in 1971 it became the
first Black-owned radio station in the New York City metropolitan market. Under his leadership,
WLIB aired news, information and cultural programming of interest to the Black community in
the number one media market in the country. At long last, local communities of color began to
find broadcast programming that reflected their unique needs and interests. Sutton went on to
purchase WBLS in New York, and several other radio stations in various markets to form his
media company, Inner City Broadcasting. His stations gave voice to African American concerns
in numerous local communities, and provided opportunities for minorities seeking employment
in the broadcast industry. Sutton's pioneering Inner City Broadcasting became the model upon
which others have worked to build successful broadcast enterprises.
Although Percy Sutton's life should be celebrated for all his many and diverse
accomplishments – Tuskegee Airman, political leader, and one-time owner of the famed Apollo
Theatre – it is his legacy as a local broadcaster that I will always cherish. At a time when
minority ownership of broadcast stations has reached woeful single digits, I trust we will
remember the legacy of Percy Sutton and the importance of diversity in media ownership. I
hope also that we will re-dedicate our efforts to improving ownership diversity of media outlets
so that they will truly reflect the rich cultural diversity of all our nation's citizens.
PERCY E. SUTTON
With the passing of Percy E. Sutton, New York City has lost a preeminent leader. Mr.
Sutton was known to New Yorkers, and particularly those in his beloved Harlem, as a lawyer,
civil rights leader and the long-serving Manhattan Borough President. Yet it is his role as a
broadcaster and media entrepreneur that represents a larger, and perhaps, more lasting legacy for
the nation at large. When Sutton and others purchased radio station WLIB in 1971 it became the
first Black-owned radio station in the New York City metropolitan market. Under his leadership,
WLIB aired news, information and cultural programming of interest to the Black community in
the number one media market in the country. At long last, local communities of color began to
find broadcast programming that reflected their unique needs and interests. Sutton went on to
purchase WBLS in New York, and several other radio stations in various markets to form his
media company, Inner City Broadcasting. His stations gave voice to African American concerns
in numerous local communities, and provided opportunities for minorities seeking employment
in the broadcast industry. Sutton's pioneering Inner City Broadcasting became the model upon
which others have worked to build successful broadcast enterprises.
Although Percy Sutton's life should be celebrated for all his many and diverse
accomplishments – Tuskegee Airman, political leader, and one-time owner of the famed Apollo
Theatre – it is his legacy as a local broadcaster that I will always cherish. At a time when
minority ownership of broadcast stations has reached woeful single digits, I trust we will
remember the legacy of Percy Sutton and the importance of diversity in media ownership. I
hope also that we will re-dedicate our efforts to improving ownership diversity of media outlets
so that they will truly reflect the rich cultural diversity of all our nation's citizens.
Monday, December 28, 2009
New York Daily News Editorial: Percy Sutton, 1920-2009
Few are the Americans, few are the New Yorkers, who rise to overcome as Percy Ellis Sutton did. Even fewer are those who leave as profound a stamp as this son of a slave whose determination and deeds said loudly: I am worthy. I am the equalof any man. I can do great things.
It was Sutton who paved the way for a generation of black political leaders who have now become elder statesmen of New York power. Charlie Rangel, risen to be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; David Dinkins, risen to become the city's first black mayor; Basil Paterson, risen to serve as a deputy mayor and to watch his son become New York's first black governor-all followed in Sutton's footsteps.
And it was Sutton who left electoral politics to become a media magnate at a time when no one had ever heard of such a thing.
He was born in Texas in 1920, the youngest of 15 children. Back then, the African-American experience was defined in so many ways by its limits. Limits that even as a kid, Percy chafed at.
At age 12, he stowed away on a train to Manhattan and started his life as a man.
When the Second World War called, he served his nation beautifully, as a Tuskegee Airman, winning combat stars in two theaters. Remember: The airmen's wings were almost clipped before they soared, simply because they were black.
Then it was back to New York, where the G.I. Bill sent Sutton to law school. Actually, he sent himself, working afternoons at the post office, nights as a subway conductor. In the mornings it was straight to school.
In the 1950's and '60's, Sutton's Harlem law office became a hub of the civil rights movement. He defended those arrested in protests and sit-ins and marches: many whose names have been forgotten, and at least one whose name never will be-Malcolm X.
And Sutton understood that being a man "of the movement" was not inconsistent with being a man of the whole city. He plunged into politics to serve in the Legislature. He represented all of Manhattan as borough president. In 1977, he ran for mayor, in the first contest where a black man's face was secondary to the race he ran.
He stood alongside giants named Koch and Cuomo and Beame and Abzug and Badillo. Sutton lost, but he wasn't through. He built a media empire, brick by brick. At the Amsterdam News. At WLIB, making it the first black-owned radio station in the city. At WBLS. At the Apollo Theater. Inner City Broadcasting Corp. amplified countless voices. Without Sutton, no Charlie Rangel. Without Sutton, no David Dinkins. No David Paterson.
Without Sutton, probably no Barack Obama. Because black politicians would all be black first, leaders second. Which, thank God, they no longer are. Let the young ones put down their video games and hear the stories of those who remember Percy Sutton.
It is a legacy for all Americans to embrace.
It was Sutton who paved the way for a generation of black political leaders who have now become elder statesmen of New York power. Charlie Rangel, risen to be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; David Dinkins, risen to become the city's first black mayor; Basil Paterson, risen to serve as a deputy mayor and to watch his son become New York's first black governor-all followed in Sutton's footsteps.
And it was Sutton who left electoral politics to become a media magnate at a time when no one had ever heard of such a thing.
He was born in Texas in 1920, the youngest of 15 children. Back then, the African-American experience was defined in so many ways by its limits. Limits that even as a kid, Percy chafed at.
At age 12, he stowed away on a train to Manhattan and started his life as a man.
When the Second World War called, he served his nation beautifully, as a Tuskegee Airman, winning combat stars in two theaters. Remember: The airmen's wings were almost clipped before they soared, simply because they were black.
Then it was back to New York, where the G.I. Bill sent Sutton to law school. Actually, he sent himself, working afternoons at the post office, nights as a subway conductor. In the mornings it was straight to school.
In the 1950's and '60's, Sutton's Harlem law office became a hub of the civil rights movement. He defended those arrested in protests and sit-ins and marches: many whose names have been forgotten, and at least one whose name never will be-Malcolm X.
And Sutton understood that being a man "of the movement" was not inconsistent with being a man of the whole city. He plunged into politics to serve in the Legislature. He represented all of Manhattan as borough president. In 1977, he ran for mayor, in the first contest where a black man's face was secondary to the race he ran.
He stood alongside giants named Koch and Cuomo and Beame and Abzug and Badillo. Sutton lost, but he wasn't through. He built a media empire, brick by brick. At the Amsterdam News. At WLIB, making it the first black-owned radio station in the city. At WBLS. At the Apollo Theater. Inner City Broadcasting Corp. amplified countless voices. Without Sutton, no Charlie Rangel. Without Sutton, no David Dinkins. No David Paterson.
Without Sutton, probably no Barack Obama. Because black politicians would all be black first, leaders second. Which, thank God, they no longer are. Let the young ones put down their video games and hear the stories of those who remember Percy Sutton.
It is a legacy for all Americans to embrace.
New York City Flags To Fly At Half-Staff In Honor Of Percy Sutton
Flags will fly at half-staff in the city starting Monday in memory of pioneering Harlem leader Percy Sutton.
"New York has always been a city of trailblazers, but few have opened more doors for more people than Percy Sutton did," Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement released Sunday, the day after the uptown icon died at 89.
The loss of Sutton, one of the nation's most prominent black political, business and social leaders, leaves a hole in the civil rights community, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
"When there was a crisis, you could always call him for counsel and support," Sharpton said under the marquee of the Apollo Theater, which Sutton helped revitalize. "I don't know what we'll do without his guiding hand."
Sharpton visited with Sutton at a local hospital only days before his death along with Gov. Paterson and his wife, Michelle.
"He's a great man," said Calvin Wilson, 49, of Harlem. "He did a lot. He didn't turn his head on the community."
Of all Sutton's accomplishments, helping to save the Apollo had special meaning, said Harlem nursery school teacher Quase Beasley, 28.
"That's something that keeps Harlem running," she said. "The Apollo is our staple of our music and who we are."
Funeral arrangements were pending.
"New York has always been a city of trailblazers, but few have opened more doors for more people than Percy Sutton did," Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement released Sunday, the day after the uptown icon died at 89.
The loss of Sutton, one of the nation's most prominent black political, business and social leaders, leaves a hole in the civil rights community, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.
"When there was a crisis, you could always call him for counsel and support," Sharpton said under the marquee of the Apollo Theater, which Sutton helped revitalize. "I don't know what we'll do without his guiding hand."
Sharpton visited with Sutton at a local hospital only days before his death along with Gov. Paterson and his wife, Michelle.
"He's a great man," said Calvin Wilson, 49, of Harlem. "He did a lot. He didn't turn his head on the community."
Of all Sutton's accomplishments, helping to save the Apollo had special meaning, said Harlem nursery school teacher Quase Beasley, 28.
"That's something that keeps Harlem running," she said. "The Apollo is our staple of our music and who we are."
Funeral arrangements were pending.
In Memoriam: Percy Ellis Sutton (1920-2009)
Percy E. Sutton, a pioneering figure who represented Malcolm X as a young lawyer and became one of the nation’s most prominent black political and business leaders, died in a Manhattan nursing home on Saturday, his family said. He was 89.
Entering politics in the early 1950s, Mr. Sutton rose from the Democratic clubhouses of Harlem to become the longest-serving Manhattan borough president and, for more than a decade, the highest-ranking black elected official in New York City.
Mr. Sutton, whose passion for civil rights was inherited from his father, was arrested as a Freedom Rider in Mississippi and Alabama in the 1960s, yet once described himself as “an evolutionist rather than a revolutionist” in matters of race. “You ought always to keep the lines of communication open with those with whom you disagree,” he said.
He was the senior member of the group of prominent Harlem politicians who became known, sometimes derisively, as the Gang of Four. The other three were David N. Dinkins, New York’s first black mayor; Representative Charles B. Rangel; and Basil A. Paterson, who was a state senator and New York’s secretary of state. Mr. Sutton was also a mentor to Mr. Paterson’s son, Gov. David A. Paterson.
“It was Percy Sutton who talked me into running for office, and who has continued to serve as one of my most valued advisers ever since,” Governor Paterson said in a statement on Saturday night.
In a statement on Sunday, President Obama called Mr. Sutton “a true hero to African-Americans in New York City and around the country.”
Mr. Sutton was the first seriously regarded black candidate for mayor when he ran in 1977. But after he finished fifth in a seven-way Democratic primary, his supporters saw the loss as a stinging rebuke of his campaign’s strenuous efforts to build support among whites. Still, Mr. Dinkins, who was elected in 1989, called Mr. Sutton’s failed bid indispensable to his own success.
“I stand on the shoulders of Percy Ellis Sutton,” he later said.
Mr. Sutton’s business empire included, over the years, radio stations, cable television systems and national television programs. Another business invested in Africa. Still another sold interactive technology to radio stations.
Mr. Sutton had an immaculately groomed beard and mustache, tailored clothing and a sonorous voice that prompted a nickname, “wizard of ooze.” Associates called him “the chairman,” a nickname more to his liking.
Percy Ellis Sutton, the last child in a family of 15 children, was born on Nov. 24, 1920, in San Antonio and grew up on a farm nearby in Prairie View, Tex. His father, Samuel Johnson Sutton, born in the last days of slavery, was the principal of a segregated high school in San Antonio. His mother, Lillian, was a teacher.
The 12 children who survived into adulthood went to college, with the older ones giving financial and moral support to the younger. (One of the brothers, Oliver C. Sutton, became a State Supreme Court justice in Manhattan.)
His father was an early civil rights activist who farmed, sold real estate and owned a mattress factory, a funeral home and a skating rink — in addition to being a full-time educator.
Percy milked the cows and sometimes helped his father deliver milk to the poor, riding in the same Studebaker that was used for funerals.
At 12, he stowed away on a passenger train to New York, where he slept under a sign on 155th Street. Far from being angry, his family regarded him as an adventurer, he later said.
From an early age, he bristled at prejudice. At 13, while passing out N.A.A.C.P. leaflets in an all-white neighborhood, he was beaten by a policeman.
Mr. Sutton attended Prairie View A & M, as well as Tuskegee in Alabama and Hampton University in Virginia, without earning a degree. During college, he took up stunt-flying on the barnstorming circuit, but gave it up after a friend crashed.
When World War II began, he tried to enlist in Texas but was turned away. He finally enlisted in New York, and served as an intelligence officer with the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed all-black unit of the Army Air Forces. He won combat stars in the Italian and Mediterranean theaters.
After the war, Mr. Sutton entered Columbia Law School on the G.I. Bill on the basis of his solid college grades, but transferred to Brooklyn Law School because he worked two jobs — at a post office from 4 p.m. until midnight, then as a subway conductor until 8:30 in the morning. He reported to law school at 9:30. This schedule continued for three years until he graduated.
The punishing pace so annoyed his wife, the former Leatrice O’Farrell, that she divorced him in 1950 — only to remarry him in 1952. In between, he married and divorced Eileen Clark.
Mr. Sutton is survived by his wife, Leatrice; a son from their marriage, Pierre; a daughter from his second marriage, Cheryl Lynn Sutton; his sister, Essie Mae Sutton of New York; and four grandchildren.
After law school, Mr. Sutton made what he called “a major miscalculation” — enlisting in the Air Force because he mistakenly thought he had failed the bar exam.
He served in the Korean War, and in 1953 opened a law practice in Harlem. The initial going was tough; he had to take extra jobs, one of which involved scrubbing floors.
Mr. Sutton threw himself into the civil rights movement, representing more than 200 people arrested in protests in the South. He heard Malcolm X preaching at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue and introduced himself, telling the activist that he was his new lawyer.
Mr. Sutton represented Malcolm X beyond his assassination in 1965, when cemeteries refused his body. Mr. Sutton arranged for burial in Westchester County.
“Had it not been for Percy, I don’t know where Malcolm would have been buried,” Mr. Dinkins said.
In the 1950s, Mr. Sutton worked in political campaigns, both for others and for himself. He lost seven times in 11 years in challenges to established Democrats for a State Assembly seat, finally winning by a slim margin in 1964.
In 1966, the Manhattan borough president, Constance Baker Motley, was appointed to a federal judgeship, and the City Council chose Mr. Sutton to replace her. He was elected that fall to serve the remaining three years of her term, then was re-elected twice, in 1969 and 1973. When the Beame administration, engulfed in the fiscal crisis, could not come up with the $20,000 needed to expand the New York City Marathon into a five-borough race in 1976, Mr. Sutton solicited $25,000 from Lewis and Jack Rudin, the real estate executives..
In 1973, Mr. Sutton threw his support to Abraham D. Beame, who faced a strong challenge from Representative Herman Badillo. Mr. Sutton hoped that, in return, Mr. Beame would support him in 1977 in the race for mayor of New York.
Mr. Sutton saw his path to victory as combining minority support with that of the white liberals and organization Democrats who had elevated Mr. Beame. But the mayor delayed making a decision on running for re-election, causing Mr. Sutton to tell The New York Times, “It’s rather castrating to be waiting on others for your future.”
Mr. Beame finally decided to run again, and Mr. Sutton embraced a strategy of appealing to whites by taking strong anti-crime stands and championing white ethnic neighborhoods. But polls suggested that many New Yorkers saw mainly the color of his skin. This, to Mr. Sutton, was “the most disheartening, deprecating, disabling experience.”
As the Democratic primary grew more crowded, with seven candidates running, Mr. Sutton eventually switched tactics and tried to shore up his black support. It was not enough, though the eventual victor, Edward I. Koch, later called Mr. Sutton “one of the smartest people I have met in politics or outside of politics.”
Mr. Sutton blamed the news media as much as his opponents for his defeat. “It’s racism pure and simple,” he declared.
Mr. Sutton began investing in media companies in 1971, while he was Manhattan borough president, and he was part of a group that bought The New York Amsterdam News, New York’s largest black newspaper. Later that year, the same group’s purchase of an AM station, WLIB, made it the first black-owned radio station in New York.
Critics said the borough president was using the weekly to further his own political career, but he insisted he wanted to “liberate” blacks by expanding their influence in the media.
(Skeptics could not help noting that an Amsterdam News writer wrote that he had never seen “a more diligent or competent public official” than Mr. Sutton.)
Mr. Sutton sold his stake in the paper in 1975, calling it “a political liability.”
In 1974, he and his investors bought WBLS-FM, and the group, Inner City Broadcasting, grew to own, at various times, 18 radio stations in other cities and cable franchises in Queens and Philadelphia.
In 1981, Inner City, of which Mr. Sutton was chairman, bought the Apollo, the celebrated Harlem theater, at a bankruptcy sale for $225,000. He presided over a $20 million renovation, which included building a cable television studio used to produce the syndicated television program “It’s Showtime at the Apollo.” The theater reopened in 1985.
In 1992, a nonprofit foundation took over the theater after Mr. Sutton said he could no longer afford to run it. Some years later, Mr. Sutton became a defendant in a lawsuit by the state attorney general, Dennis C. Vacco, that accused the foundation, of which Mr. Rangel was chairman, of failing to collect $4 million from Inner City. Mr. Sutton denied wrongdoing, and the suit was eventually settled. When Inner City began producing a program called “Showtime in Harlem” in 2002, the theater accused the company of violating the Apollo trademark and filed suit.
Feuds and controversies materialized in Mr. Sutton’s political career, as well. There was bitterness between him and Mr. Badillo over the 1977 mayoral race — when the supporters of each accused the other of splitting the black and Hispanic vote — as well as the 1985 race, when Mr. Sutton and other Harlem leaders refused to endorse Mr. Badillo. They instead backed Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr.
In 1970, Mr. Sutton was criticized when he helped Mr. Rangel unseat Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Ebony magazine said Mr. Sutton’s actions “did little to endear him to blacks in New York and across the nation.”
Mr. Sutton sometimes recalled how his father would not let his children play in a segregated San Antonio park on the one day of the year that they were allowed in — on June 19, the anniversary of Texas’s implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation.
But Mr. Sutton also remembered something else he had learned from his father: “Suffer the hurts, but don’t show the anger, because if you do, it will block you from being able to effectively do anything to remove the hurts.”
Entering politics in the early 1950s, Mr. Sutton rose from the Democratic clubhouses of Harlem to become the longest-serving Manhattan borough president and, for more than a decade, the highest-ranking black elected official in New York City.
Mr. Sutton, whose passion for civil rights was inherited from his father, was arrested as a Freedom Rider in Mississippi and Alabama in the 1960s, yet once described himself as “an evolutionist rather than a revolutionist” in matters of race. “You ought always to keep the lines of communication open with those with whom you disagree,” he said.
He was the senior member of the group of prominent Harlem politicians who became known, sometimes derisively, as the Gang of Four. The other three were David N. Dinkins, New York’s first black mayor; Representative Charles B. Rangel; and Basil A. Paterson, who was a state senator and New York’s secretary of state. Mr. Sutton was also a mentor to Mr. Paterson’s son, Gov. David A. Paterson.
“It was Percy Sutton who talked me into running for office, and who has continued to serve as one of my most valued advisers ever since,” Governor Paterson said in a statement on Saturday night.
In a statement on Sunday, President Obama called Mr. Sutton “a true hero to African-Americans in New York City and around the country.”
Mr. Sutton was the first seriously regarded black candidate for mayor when he ran in 1977. But after he finished fifth in a seven-way Democratic primary, his supporters saw the loss as a stinging rebuke of his campaign’s strenuous efforts to build support among whites. Still, Mr. Dinkins, who was elected in 1989, called Mr. Sutton’s failed bid indispensable to his own success.
“I stand on the shoulders of Percy Ellis Sutton,” he later said.
Mr. Sutton’s business empire included, over the years, radio stations, cable television systems and national television programs. Another business invested in Africa. Still another sold interactive technology to radio stations.
Mr. Sutton had an immaculately groomed beard and mustache, tailored clothing and a sonorous voice that prompted a nickname, “wizard of ooze.” Associates called him “the chairman,” a nickname more to his liking.
Percy Ellis Sutton, the last child in a family of 15 children, was born on Nov. 24, 1920, in San Antonio and grew up on a farm nearby in Prairie View, Tex. His father, Samuel Johnson Sutton, born in the last days of slavery, was the principal of a segregated high school in San Antonio. His mother, Lillian, was a teacher.
The 12 children who survived into adulthood went to college, with the older ones giving financial and moral support to the younger. (One of the brothers, Oliver C. Sutton, became a State Supreme Court justice in Manhattan.)
His father was an early civil rights activist who farmed, sold real estate and owned a mattress factory, a funeral home and a skating rink — in addition to being a full-time educator.
Percy milked the cows and sometimes helped his father deliver milk to the poor, riding in the same Studebaker that was used for funerals.
At 12, he stowed away on a passenger train to New York, where he slept under a sign on 155th Street. Far from being angry, his family regarded him as an adventurer, he later said.
From an early age, he bristled at prejudice. At 13, while passing out N.A.A.C.P. leaflets in an all-white neighborhood, he was beaten by a policeman.
Mr. Sutton attended Prairie View A & M, as well as Tuskegee in Alabama and Hampton University in Virginia, without earning a degree. During college, he took up stunt-flying on the barnstorming circuit, but gave it up after a friend crashed.
When World War II began, he tried to enlist in Texas but was turned away. He finally enlisted in New York, and served as an intelligence officer with the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed all-black unit of the Army Air Forces. He won combat stars in the Italian and Mediterranean theaters.
After the war, Mr. Sutton entered Columbia Law School on the G.I. Bill on the basis of his solid college grades, but transferred to Brooklyn Law School because he worked two jobs — at a post office from 4 p.m. until midnight, then as a subway conductor until 8:30 in the morning. He reported to law school at 9:30. This schedule continued for three years until he graduated.
The punishing pace so annoyed his wife, the former Leatrice O’Farrell, that she divorced him in 1950 — only to remarry him in 1952. In between, he married and divorced Eileen Clark.
Mr. Sutton is survived by his wife, Leatrice; a son from their marriage, Pierre; a daughter from his second marriage, Cheryl Lynn Sutton; his sister, Essie Mae Sutton of New York; and four grandchildren.
After law school, Mr. Sutton made what he called “a major miscalculation” — enlisting in the Air Force because he mistakenly thought he had failed the bar exam.
He served in the Korean War, and in 1953 opened a law practice in Harlem. The initial going was tough; he had to take extra jobs, one of which involved scrubbing floors.
Mr. Sutton threw himself into the civil rights movement, representing more than 200 people arrested in protests in the South. He heard Malcolm X preaching at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue and introduced himself, telling the activist that he was his new lawyer.
Mr. Sutton represented Malcolm X beyond his assassination in 1965, when cemeteries refused his body. Mr. Sutton arranged for burial in Westchester County.
“Had it not been for Percy, I don’t know where Malcolm would have been buried,” Mr. Dinkins said.
In the 1950s, Mr. Sutton worked in political campaigns, both for others and for himself. He lost seven times in 11 years in challenges to established Democrats for a State Assembly seat, finally winning by a slim margin in 1964.
In 1966, the Manhattan borough president, Constance Baker Motley, was appointed to a federal judgeship, and the City Council chose Mr. Sutton to replace her. He was elected that fall to serve the remaining three years of her term, then was re-elected twice, in 1969 and 1973. When the Beame administration, engulfed in the fiscal crisis, could not come up with the $20,000 needed to expand the New York City Marathon into a five-borough race in 1976, Mr. Sutton solicited $25,000 from Lewis and Jack Rudin, the real estate executives..
In 1973, Mr. Sutton threw his support to Abraham D. Beame, who faced a strong challenge from Representative Herman Badillo. Mr. Sutton hoped that, in return, Mr. Beame would support him in 1977 in the race for mayor of New York.
Mr. Sutton saw his path to victory as combining minority support with that of the white liberals and organization Democrats who had elevated Mr. Beame. But the mayor delayed making a decision on running for re-election, causing Mr. Sutton to tell The New York Times, “It’s rather castrating to be waiting on others for your future.”
Mr. Beame finally decided to run again, and Mr. Sutton embraced a strategy of appealing to whites by taking strong anti-crime stands and championing white ethnic neighborhoods. But polls suggested that many New Yorkers saw mainly the color of his skin. This, to Mr. Sutton, was “the most disheartening, deprecating, disabling experience.”
As the Democratic primary grew more crowded, with seven candidates running, Mr. Sutton eventually switched tactics and tried to shore up his black support. It was not enough, though the eventual victor, Edward I. Koch, later called Mr. Sutton “one of the smartest people I have met in politics or outside of politics.”
Mr. Sutton blamed the news media as much as his opponents for his defeat. “It’s racism pure and simple,” he declared.
Mr. Sutton began investing in media companies in 1971, while he was Manhattan borough president, and he was part of a group that bought The New York Amsterdam News, New York’s largest black newspaper. Later that year, the same group’s purchase of an AM station, WLIB, made it the first black-owned radio station in New York.
Critics said the borough president was using the weekly to further his own political career, but he insisted he wanted to “liberate” blacks by expanding their influence in the media.
(Skeptics could not help noting that an Amsterdam News writer wrote that he had never seen “a more diligent or competent public official” than Mr. Sutton.)
Mr. Sutton sold his stake in the paper in 1975, calling it “a political liability.”
In 1974, he and his investors bought WBLS-FM, and the group, Inner City Broadcasting, grew to own, at various times, 18 radio stations in other cities and cable franchises in Queens and Philadelphia.
In 1981, Inner City, of which Mr. Sutton was chairman, bought the Apollo, the celebrated Harlem theater, at a bankruptcy sale for $225,000. He presided over a $20 million renovation, which included building a cable television studio used to produce the syndicated television program “It’s Showtime at the Apollo.” The theater reopened in 1985.
In 1992, a nonprofit foundation took over the theater after Mr. Sutton said he could no longer afford to run it. Some years later, Mr. Sutton became a defendant in a lawsuit by the state attorney general, Dennis C. Vacco, that accused the foundation, of which Mr. Rangel was chairman, of failing to collect $4 million from Inner City. Mr. Sutton denied wrongdoing, and the suit was eventually settled. When Inner City began producing a program called “Showtime in Harlem” in 2002, the theater accused the company of violating the Apollo trademark and filed suit.
Feuds and controversies materialized in Mr. Sutton’s political career, as well. There was bitterness between him and Mr. Badillo over the 1977 mayoral race — when the supporters of each accused the other of splitting the black and Hispanic vote — as well as the 1985 race, when Mr. Sutton and other Harlem leaders refused to endorse Mr. Badillo. They instead backed Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr.
In 1970, Mr. Sutton was criticized when he helped Mr. Rangel unseat Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Ebony magazine said Mr. Sutton’s actions “did little to endear him to blacks in New York and across the nation.”
Mr. Sutton sometimes recalled how his father would not let his children play in a segregated San Antonio park on the one day of the year that they were allowed in — on June 19, the anniversary of Texas’s implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation.
But Mr. Sutton also remembered something else he had learned from his father: “Suffer the hurts, but don’t show the anger, because if you do, it will block you from being able to effectively do anything to remove the hurts.”
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Guantanamo Bay Prison May Not Close Until 2011
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's commitment to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by next month may be delayed until 2011 because it will take months for the government to buy an Illinois prison and upgrade it to hold suspected terrorists.
The drawn-out construction timetable shows the political risk of Obama's pledge, a delay that could even be extended by congressional opposition to funding the purchase and upgrades for the Thomson Correctional Center, an underused state facility about 150 miles west of Chicago.
Lawmakers in both parties have been wary of bringing detainees to the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder already has decided that self-declared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others will be tried in federal court in New York City.
In the Senate, a spokesman for Republican leader Mitch McConnell promised that the GOP would use delaying tactics to prevent funding the Illinois facility and added that he expected support from Democrats.
"I think there will be bipartisan opposition" to bringing detainees to Illinois, Donald Stewart said.
Congress also needs to change a law prohibiting detention in the U.S. of detainees who are not awaiting trial.
The prison in rural western Illinois may not be purchased from the state until March and will need up to 10 months of construction, said Joe Shoemaker, spokesman for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Shoemaker said, "The end of 2010 or the start of 2011 has always been the mark the administration talked to us about."
Obama originally said Guantanamo would close Jan. 22, 2010. While that date proved unrealistic, the president has directed administration officials to move quickly to acquire the maximum-security prison in Illinois.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt on Wednesday would not say when Guantanamo would close.
"The President remains as committed today to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo as he was when he entered office, and substantial progress has been made in recent weeks," LaBolt told The Associated Press. "The detainee population at Guantanamo is now smaller than it has been at any time since 2002.
"We will work with Congress to ensure that we secure the necessary funds to purchase and upgrade the Thomson prison — which will operate at a substantially lower cost to taxpayers — next year," he said.
The failure to meet the timetable may have cost White House counsel Greg Craig his job, since Craig, who is leaving next month, was heading the effort to close the facility.
In addition to any appropriations struggles, current federal law requires that detainees can only be housed in the United States while their trials are pending. That law would have to be changed to cover detainees who have not yet been charged and will not be sent abroad. The change would have to specify that detainees could be kept on U.S. soil for any purpose.
The Justice Department said last weekend that since 2002, more than 560 detainees have departed the military prison in Cuba and 198 remain.
"We're hitting the anticipated bumps" in the timetable for using the Illinois facility, Shoemaker said.
He added that many lawmakers would not vote to change the law or provide the funds until the administration submits a comprehensive plan on the handling of the remaining prisoners.
Federal officials tried on Tuesday to allay fears that moving terror suspects from Guantanamo to Illinois could make the state a terrorist target.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Harley Lappin, told a state legislative panel that a new perimeter fence and other measures would make Thomson "the most secure of all federal prisons in the country."
The 12-member Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability could vote on a recommendation to sell the prison that skirts the Mississippi River, but Gov. Pat Quinn does not have to follow the recommendation.
The commission said it would not vote on the proposal before Jan. 14.
The drawn-out construction timetable shows the political risk of Obama's pledge, a delay that could even be extended by congressional opposition to funding the purchase and upgrades for the Thomson Correctional Center, an underused state facility about 150 miles west of Chicago.
Lawmakers in both parties have been wary of bringing detainees to the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder already has decided that self-declared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others will be tried in federal court in New York City.
In the Senate, a spokesman for Republican leader Mitch McConnell promised that the GOP would use delaying tactics to prevent funding the Illinois facility and added that he expected support from Democrats.
"I think there will be bipartisan opposition" to bringing detainees to Illinois, Donald Stewart said.
Congress also needs to change a law prohibiting detention in the U.S. of detainees who are not awaiting trial.
The prison in rural western Illinois may not be purchased from the state until March and will need up to 10 months of construction, said Joe Shoemaker, spokesman for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Shoemaker said, "The end of 2010 or the start of 2011 has always been the mark the administration talked to us about."
Obama originally said Guantanamo would close Jan. 22, 2010. While that date proved unrealistic, the president has directed administration officials to move quickly to acquire the maximum-security prison in Illinois.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt on Wednesday would not say when Guantanamo would close.
"The President remains as committed today to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo as he was when he entered office, and substantial progress has been made in recent weeks," LaBolt told The Associated Press. "The detainee population at Guantanamo is now smaller than it has been at any time since 2002.
"We will work with Congress to ensure that we secure the necessary funds to purchase and upgrade the Thomson prison — which will operate at a substantially lower cost to taxpayers — next year," he said.
The failure to meet the timetable may have cost White House counsel Greg Craig his job, since Craig, who is leaving next month, was heading the effort to close the facility.
In addition to any appropriations struggles, current federal law requires that detainees can only be housed in the United States while their trials are pending. That law would have to be changed to cover detainees who have not yet been charged and will not be sent abroad. The change would have to specify that detainees could be kept on U.S. soil for any purpose.
The Justice Department said last weekend that since 2002, more than 560 detainees have departed the military prison in Cuba and 198 remain.
"We're hitting the anticipated bumps" in the timetable for using the Illinois facility, Shoemaker said.
He added that many lawmakers would not vote to change the law or provide the funds until the administration submits a comprehensive plan on the handling of the remaining prisoners.
Federal officials tried on Tuesday to allay fears that moving terror suspects from Guantanamo to Illinois could make the state a terrorist target.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Harley Lappin, told a state legislative panel that a new perimeter fence and other measures would make Thomson "the most secure of all federal prisons in the country."
The 12-member Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability could vote on a recommendation to sell the prison that skirts the Mississippi River, but Gov. Pat Quinn does not have to follow the recommendation.
The commission said it would not vote on the proposal before Jan. 14.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
U.S. Soldiers Could Face Court Martial For Pregnancy
Washington -- A new order from the general in charge of U.S. troops northern Iraq makes getting pregnant or impregnating a fellow soldier an offense punishable by court-martial.
The directive, part of a larger order restricting the behavior of the 22,000 soldiers under Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo's command, is meant to prevent losing soldiers at a time when troop strength is stretched thin, Cucolo explained in a statement sent to the troops under his command and provided to CNN.
"I need every soldier I've got, especially since we are facing a drawdown of forces during our mission," Cucolo wrote. "Anyone who leaves this fight earlier than the expected 12-month deployment creates a burden on their teammates. Anyone who leaves this fight early because they made a personal choice that changed their medical status -- or contributes to doing that to another -- is not in keeping with a key element of our ethos."
The rule, enacted November 4, was first reported by Stars and Stripes, a military-focused publication. It prohibits "becoming nondeployable for reasons within the control of the soldier," which include "becoming pregnant, or impregnating a soldier ... resulting in the redeployment of the pregnant soldier."
Pregnancy that arises from sexual assault would not be punished, Cucolo said.
The directive applies to all military and civilians serving under Cucolo in northern Iraq, an area that includes Balad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Mosul and Samarra, according to the Web site of Multi-National Force Iraq.
Of the 22,000 people under Cucolo's command, 1,682 are women.
Cucolo will decide what cases will be pursued.
"I am the only individual who passes judgment on these cases. I decide every case based on the unique facts of each soldier's situation," Cucolo wrote in his explanation of the new rules.
Cucolo said he considers his female soldiers "invaluable" and he wants to ensure they fulfill their deployments.
"I am responsible and accountable for the fighting ability of this outfit. I am going to do everything I can to keep my combat power -- and in the Army, combat power is the individual soldier," his statement said. "To this end, I made an existing policy stricter. I wanted to encourage my soldiers to think before they acted, and understand their behavior and actions have consequences -- all of their behavior."
In an e-mail to CNN, Cucolo stressed the rule "is just a small part of a general policy on behavior and actions," and is "lawful."
The memo outlines a long list of behaviors that are prohibited, from gambling and using drugs to behaviors that would offend Iraqis, such as entering a mosque or religious site unless "required by military necessity."
While the rules may seem unusual to some, they are not out of line with how the military regulates behavior to a much stricter degree than the general public is used to, said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale University.
"Questions of personal autonomy play out differently in the military," Fidell said.
He said the purpose of the rule is mostly to have a "chilling effect" on behavior, but he doubts it would ever be fully prosecuted. If it were, however, it appears to be legal, he said.
"If push came to shove and there was prosecution, I think the rule would be upheld as a reasonable balance of the competing interests," he said.
It is not without precedent, Fidell said. During the Vietnam War, a female troop would be discharged for getting pregnant. That rule was challenged, but the government did not want to defend it at the time.
According to the explanation of the policy that was sent to all those affected, only a few cases have been considered for punishment under the new rules. Four soldiers have gotten pregnant since Cucolo took over command of northern Iraq operations at the beginning of November, he told CNN in an e-mail. Of the eight soldiers involved, none were court-martialed. Instead, all received a written reprimand, Cucolo said.
In one case, a male soldier received the "most severe punishment," according to the explanation sent to those serving in northern Iraq. Cucolo does not give any other details about the case except to say the soldier "committed adultery as well."
The directive, part of a larger order restricting the behavior of the 22,000 soldiers under Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo's command, is meant to prevent losing soldiers at a time when troop strength is stretched thin, Cucolo explained in a statement sent to the troops under his command and provided to CNN.
"I need every soldier I've got, especially since we are facing a drawdown of forces during our mission," Cucolo wrote. "Anyone who leaves this fight earlier than the expected 12-month deployment creates a burden on their teammates. Anyone who leaves this fight early because they made a personal choice that changed their medical status -- or contributes to doing that to another -- is not in keeping with a key element of our ethos."
The rule, enacted November 4, was first reported by Stars and Stripes, a military-focused publication. It prohibits "becoming nondeployable for reasons within the control of the soldier," which include "becoming pregnant, or impregnating a soldier ... resulting in the redeployment of the pregnant soldier."
Pregnancy that arises from sexual assault would not be punished, Cucolo said.
The directive applies to all military and civilians serving under Cucolo in northern Iraq, an area that includes Balad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Mosul and Samarra, according to the Web site of Multi-National Force Iraq.
Of the 22,000 people under Cucolo's command, 1,682 are women.
Cucolo will decide what cases will be pursued.
"I am the only individual who passes judgment on these cases. I decide every case based on the unique facts of each soldier's situation," Cucolo wrote in his explanation of the new rules.
Cucolo said he considers his female soldiers "invaluable" and he wants to ensure they fulfill their deployments.
"I am responsible and accountable for the fighting ability of this outfit. I am going to do everything I can to keep my combat power -- and in the Army, combat power is the individual soldier," his statement said. "To this end, I made an existing policy stricter. I wanted to encourage my soldiers to think before they acted, and understand their behavior and actions have consequences -- all of their behavior."
In an e-mail to CNN, Cucolo stressed the rule "is just a small part of a general policy on behavior and actions," and is "lawful."
The memo outlines a long list of behaviors that are prohibited, from gambling and using drugs to behaviors that would offend Iraqis, such as entering a mosque or religious site unless "required by military necessity."
While the rules may seem unusual to some, they are not out of line with how the military regulates behavior to a much stricter degree than the general public is used to, said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale University.
"Questions of personal autonomy play out differently in the military," Fidell said.
He said the purpose of the rule is mostly to have a "chilling effect" on behavior, but he doubts it would ever be fully prosecuted. If it were, however, it appears to be legal, he said.
"If push came to shove and there was prosecution, I think the rule would be upheld as a reasonable balance of the competing interests," he said.
It is not without precedent, Fidell said. During the Vietnam War, a female troop would be discharged for getting pregnant. That rule was challenged, but the government did not want to defend it at the time.
According to the explanation of the policy that was sent to all those affected, only a few cases have been considered for punishment under the new rules. Four soldiers have gotten pregnant since Cucolo took over command of northern Iraq operations at the beginning of November, he told CNN in an e-mail. Of the eight soldiers involved, none were court-martialed. Instead, all received a written reprimand, Cucolo said.
In one case, a male soldier received the "most severe punishment," according to the explanation sent to those serving in northern Iraq. Cucolo does not give any other details about the case except to say the soldier "committed adultery as well."
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Guantanamo Bay Detainees To Be Moved To Illinois
The Obama administration said yesterday that it will move some Guantanamo Bay detainees to an Illinois prison and hold military commission trials there. The prisoners will be moved to the Thomson Correctional Center in northwestern Illinois. Prison officials stated that they can only house a limited number of detainees from Guantanamo in addition to other federal inmates. The administration plans to expand security at the facility making it the most secure in the U.S. to hold military commision trials inside its walls.
Washington, DC Votes To Legalize Gay Marriage
The Washington, DC City Council voted yesterday to legalize gay marriage, giving supporters a victory after a series of defeats in other states and sending the issue to Congress, which has the last word on laws in the capital. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to sign the bill, which was passed by a measure of 11-2. Gay and Lesbian couples could begin marrying in March of next year if the measure is approved by Congress.
H1N1 Vaccinations For Children Recalled
Hundreds of thousands of H1N1 vaccines intended for use on children have been recalled by federal health officials due to the vaccine losing some potency. The manufacturer of the children's H1N1 vaccinations Sanofi Pasteur, were distributed across the country last month and have already been used.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
In Memoriam: Evangelist Granville Oral Roberts (1918-2009)
TULSA, Okla. – Oral Roberts, the evangelist who rose from humble tent revivals to found a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university bearing his name, died Tuesday. He was 91.
Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday. He had survived two heart attacks in the 1990s and a broken hip in 2006.
Roberts was a pioneer on two fronts — he helped bring spirit-filled charismatic Christianity into the mainstream and took his trademark revivals to television, a new frontier for religion.
Roberts overcame tuberculosis at age 17, and credited that triumph with leading him to become one of the country's most famous ministers.
He gave up a local pastorate in Enid in 1947 to enter an evangelistic ministry in Tulsa to pray for the healing of the whole person — the body, mind and spirit. The philosophy led many to call him a "faith healer," a label he rejected with the comment: "God heals — I don't."
By the 1960s and '70s, he was reaching millions around the world through radio, television, publications and personal appearances. He remained on TV into the new century, co-hosting the program, "Miracles Now," with son Richard. He published dozens of books and conducted hundreds of crusades. A famous photograph showed him working at a desk with a sign on it reading, "Make no little plans here."
He credited his oratorical skills to his faith, saying, "I become anointed with God's word, and the spirit of the Lord builds up in me like a coiled spring. By the time I'm ready to go on, my mind is razor-sharp. I know exactly what I'm going to say and I'm feeling like a lion."
Unity of body, mind and spirit became the theme of Oral Roberts University. The campus is a Tulsa landmark, with its space-age buildings laden with gold paint, including a 200-foot prayer tower and a 60-foot bronze statue of praying hands.
His ministry hit upon rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded, and Roberts' widely ridiculed proclamation that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million. A law school he founded also was shuttered.
Semiretired in recent years and living in California, he returned to Tulsa, Okla., in October 2007 as scandal roiled Oral Roberts University. His son, Richard Roberts, who succeeded him as ORU president, faced allegations of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries at a time the institution was more than $50 million in debt.
Richard Roberts resigned as president in November 2007, marking the first time since Oral Roberts University was chartered in 1963 that a member of the Roberts family would not be at its helm. The rocky period for the evangelical school was eased by billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $70 million and helped run the school in the interim, pledging to restore the public's trust. By the fall of 2009, things were looking up, with officials saying tens of millions of dollars worth of debt had been paid off and enrollment was up slightly.
That September, a frail-looking Oral Roberts attended the ceremony when the school's new president, Mark Rutland, was formally inaugurated.
Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday. He had survived two heart attacks in the 1990s and a broken hip in 2006.
Roberts was a pioneer on two fronts — he helped bring spirit-filled charismatic Christianity into the mainstream and took his trademark revivals to television, a new frontier for religion.
Roberts overcame tuberculosis at age 17, and credited that triumph with leading him to become one of the country's most famous ministers.
He gave up a local pastorate in Enid in 1947 to enter an evangelistic ministry in Tulsa to pray for the healing of the whole person — the body, mind and spirit. The philosophy led many to call him a "faith healer," a label he rejected with the comment: "God heals — I don't."
By the 1960s and '70s, he was reaching millions around the world through radio, television, publications and personal appearances. He remained on TV into the new century, co-hosting the program, "Miracles Now," with son Richard. He published dozens of books and conducted hundreds of crusades. A famous photograph showed him working at a desk with a sign on it reading, "Make no little plans here."
He credited his oratorical skills to his faith, saying, "I become anointed with God's word, and the spirit of the Lord builds up in me like a coiled spring. By the time I'm ready to go on, my mind is razor-sharp. I know exactly what I'm going to say and I'm feeling like a lion."
Unity of body, mind and spirit became the theme of Oral Roberts University. The campus is a Tulsa landmark, with its space-age buildings laden with gold paint, including a 200-foot prayer tower and a 60-foot bronze statue of praying hands.
His ministry hit upon rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded, and Roberts' widely ridiculed proclamation that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million. A law school he founded also was shuttered.
Semiretired in recent years and living in California, he returned to Tulsa, Okla., in October 2007 as scandal roiled Oral Roberts University. His son, Richard Roberts, who succeeded him as ORU president, faced allegations of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries at a time the institution was more than $50 million in debt.
Richard Roberts resigned as president in November 2007, marking the first time since Oral Roberts University was chartered in 1963 that a member of the Roberts family would not be at its helm. The rocky period for the evangelical school was eased by billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $70 million and helped run the school in the interim, pledging to restore the public's trust. By the fall of 2009, things were looking up, with officials saying tens of millions of dollars worth of debt had been paid off and enrollment was up slightly.
That September, a frail-looking Oral Roberts attended the ceremony when the school's new president, Mark Rutland, was formally inaugurated.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Tiger Woods Takes Indefinite Hiatus From Golf Amid Infidelity Revelations Following Car Accident
PREFACE: The Society Hill has deliberately refrained from reporting on the scandal involving Tiger Woods following his car accident a few weeks ago. What has evolved as a result of this car accident that Tiger Woods has sustained has become a sordid tale fit for tabloid press with daily play-by-play articles and accounts by national and international media outlets. The Society Hill DOES NOT engage in tabloid press. Given what has already been exposed by national and international media outlets, The Society Hill will not recap or rehash the scandal. Out of respect for Tiger & Elin Nordegren Woods and their children as well as for the other parties involved in this case, The Society Hill will not add fuel to the fire. Tiger Woods has admitted his wrongdoings before an international audience and as such the following is being reported:
Tiger Woods announced today via his website that after much soul-searching and amid growing revelations with regard to his infidelity which was exposed following a car accident he sustained a few weeks ago, that he is taking an indefinite leave of absence from professional golf. Tiger admitted his wrongdoing and has repeatedly expressed remorse even as the revelations become more sordid in their details. Woods stated that the indefinite leave of absence is to try to heal and mend but also reconnect with his family, his wife Elin and their two young children.
Tiger Woods full statement can be read on his website: www.tigerwoods.com
Tiger Woods announced today via his website that after much soul-searching and amid growing revelations with regard to his infidelity which was exposed following a car accident he sustained a few weeks ago, that he is taking an indefinite leave of absence from professional golf. Tiger admitted his wrongdoing and has repeatedly expressed remorse even as the revelations become more sordid in their details. Woods stated that the indefinite leave of absence is to try to heal and mend but also reconnect with his family, his wife Elin and their two young children.
Tiger Woods full statement can be read on his website: www.tigerwoods.com
Thursday, December 10, 2009
In Memoriam: Willie Maxine Perry (1945-2009)
Willie Maxine Perry, who helped inspire the character Madea played by her movie producer son Tyler Perry, has died. She was 64.
Tyler Perry announced her Tuesday death on his Web site, where he thanked fans for their prayers. He did not say where his mother died or anything about the cause.
Perry's publicist, Keleigh Thomas, would not give further details Wednesday afternoon.
Perry owes much of his popularity to his portrayal of Madea, a sharp-tongued, iron-willed Southern matriarch played by Perry in a padded suit and wig. She is the central character in films like "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail,"
In an October interview, Perry told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the character is a celebration of strong black women who is based in part on his own mother.
"Madea's a cross between my mother and my aunt — she's the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up," he said. "... She's a strong figure where I come from, in my part of the African American community."
But the character has also earned criticism from some black community figures who argue Perry is reinforcing stereotypes of black women as overbearing, violent and brash. Film maker Spike Lee recently labeled Perry's TBS sitcoms and films "coonery."
Arlene Barron, executive director at the Jewish Community Center in New Orleans, said Maxine Perry had worked there as a nursery school assistant for about 10 years from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
Tyler Perry announced her Tuesday death on his Web site, where he thanked fans for their prayers. He did not say where his mother died or anything about the cause.
Perry's publicist, Keleigh Thomas, would not give further details Wednesday afternoon.
Perry owes much of his popularity to his portrayal of Madea, a sharp-tongued, iron-willed Southern matriarch played by Perry in a padded suit and wig. She is the central character in films like "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail,"
In an October interview, Perry told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the character is a celebration of strong black women who is based in part on his own mother.
"Madea's a cross between my mother and my aunt — she's the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up," he said. "... She's a strong figure where I come from, in my part of the African American community."
But the character has also earned criticism from some black community figures who argue Perry is reinforcing stereotypes of black women as overbearing, violent and brash. Film maker Spike Lee recently labeled Perry's TBS sitcoms and films "coonery."
Arlene Barron, executive director at the Jewish Community Center in New Orleans, said Maxine Perry had worked there as a nursery school assistant for about 10 years from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
New York Amsterdam News Celebrates 100 Years
The New York Amsterdam News one of the longest running African American based weekly newspapers recently celebrated it's 100th Anniversary. The paper founded by James Henry Anderson first debuted on December 4, 1909. Over the years, The Amsterdam News has been at the forfront of NY local news geared toward African Americans while also reporting on national, international and entertainment news from an African American perspective. At its height, the paper published articles by W.E.B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X and has a readership of over 100,000 readers weekly. The current editor and publisher of The New York Amesterdam News is Elinor Tatum, daughter of late Amsterdam News Emeritus Wilbert "Bill" Tatum. The paper recently held its anniversary gala at the David Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. Congratulations to The New York Amsterdam News...here's to another 100 years.
New York State Senate Rejects Gay Marriage Legalization By Large Margin
ALBANY, NY -In a major blow to the gay rights movement, the state Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly killed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.
After two hours of emotional and often deeply personal debate, the Senate voted down the measure 38-24, effectively killing its chances before next year's elections.
Democrats couldn't muster enough votes on their own and some Republicans who were open to the idea voted no because they were fearful of a conservative backlash, advocates said.
New York now joins a list of 31 other states to shoot down gay marriage. Five states have approved same-sex unions.
The Senate's 30 Republicans were joined by eight Democrats in voting against the measure. Except for Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx), none of the naysayers stood up during the debate to explain his or her vote publicly.
The Assembly passed the bill just after midnight, the third time that body has approved the measure since 2007.
"I'm angry, I'm disappointed, I'm sad, I'm let down, I'm betrayed - but I am not going away," vowed the bill's sponsor, Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan), the only openly gay member of the Senate.
Paterson, who at one point stood holding hands with Duane, made a rare trip to the Senate floor to support the bill.
The governor had pushed for a vote in the Senate even though the bill's fate was uncertain - an unusual move in Albany, where legislation usually gets considered only if its passage is guaranteed.
Several senators told stories of struggle, and many argued it was not a fight about religious beliefs and morality but about justice.
Sen. Ruth Hassell Thompson (D-Westchester) revealed for the first time she had a gay brother shunned by his family and forced to live overseas and a minister sister opposed to gay marriage.
"People have the right to choose...and if there is a condemnation in that choice, which is something that my church preaches, then that's between them and God," a choked-up Hassell Thompson said.
Sen. James Alesi, a Rochester Republican many thought would vote for the bill, also looked near tears as he rubbed his head and quietly uttered "no" during the vote.
Alesi prior to the vote said he believed politics and the bad economy would keep many Republicans who may be sympathetic to the cause from voting for gay marriage this time around. "In a different atmosphere, there would easily have been five members on the Republican side voting 'yes,'" he said. "But our primary focus has to be on the fiscal crisis we're in."
Gay marriage opponents were not only elated at the defeat but also with the larger-than-expected margin.
"Today was a good day for marriage in New York," said Jason McGuire, executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms.
After two hours of emotional and often deeply personal debate, the Senate voted down the measure 38-24, effectively killing its chances before next year's elections.
Democrats couldn't muster enough votes on their own and some Republicans who were open to the idea voted no because they were fearful of a conservative backlash, advocates said.
New York now joins a list of 31 other states to shoot down gay marriage. Five states have approved same-sex unions.
The Senate's 30 Republicans were joined by eight Democrats in voting against the measure. Except for Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx), none of the naysayers stood up during the debate to explain his or her vote publicly.
The Assembly passed the bill just after midnight, the third time that body has approved the measure since 2007.
"I'm angry, I'm disappointed, I'm sad, I'm let down, I'm betrayed - but I am not going away," vowed the bill's sponsor, Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan), the only openly gay member of the Senate.
Paterson, who at one point stood holding hands with Duane, made a rare trip to the Senate floor to support the bill.
The governor had pushed for a vote in the Senate even though the bill's fate was uncertain - an unusual move in Albany, where legislation usually gets considered only if its passage is guaranteed.
Several senators told stories of struggle, and many argued it was not a fight about religious beliefs and morality but about justice.
Sen. Ruth Hassell Thompson (D-Westchester) revealed for the first time she had a gay brother shunned by his family and forced to live overseas and a minister sister opposed to gay marriage.
"People have the right to choose...and if there is a condemnation in that choice, which is something that my church preaches, then that's between them and God," a choked-up Hassell Thompson said.
Sen. James Alesi, a Rochester Republican many thought would vote for the bill, also looked near tears as he rubbed his head and quietly uttered "no" during the vote.
Alesi prior to the vote said he believed politics and the bad economy would keep many Republicans who may be sympathetic to the cause from voting for gay marriage this time around. "In a different atmosphere, there would easily have been five members on the Republican side voting 'yes,'" he said. "But our primary focus has to be on the fiscal crisis we're in."
Gay marriage opponents were not only elated at the defeat but also with the larger-than-expected margin.
"Today was a good day for marriage in New York," said Jason McGuire, executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
South Africa To Expand AIDS Testing
South African President Jacob Zuma announced that his nation will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing throughout the country. President Zuma made his remarks in a speech observing World AIDS Day. South Africa has more people living with HIV or AIDS than any other country in the world. President Zuma's remarks were viewed as a turning point for a nation struggling to overcome a distrust of drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies particularly those provided by the United States, to keep AIDS patients alive. South Africa has encouraged and promoted more holistic,traditional remedies/solutions for the treatment of AIDS which has long been held as national policy. In his remarks President Zuma said "At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain two choices: submit or fight, the time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS".
President Obama Announces Afghan Troop Increase; Plans Withdrawl in Mid-2011
WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama announced Tuesday that he would speed 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in coming months, but he vowed to start bringing American forces home in the middle of 2011, saying the United States could not afford and should not have to shoulder an open-ended commitment.
Promising that he could “bring this war to a successful conclusion,” Mr. Obama set out a strategy that would seek to reverse Taliban gains in large parts of Afghanistan, better protect the Afghan people, increase the pressure on Afghanistan to build its own military capacity and a more effective government and step up attacks on Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
“America, we are passing through a time of great trial,” Mr. Obama said. “And the message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear: that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering.”
The military escalation Mr. Obama described and defended in his speech to a national television audience and 4,000 cadets at the United States Military Academy here, the culmination of a review that lasted three months, could well prove to be the most consequential decision of Mr. Obama’s presidency.
In his 33-minute address, he sought to convince an increasingly skeptical nation that the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the continued existence of Al Qaeda across the border in Pakistan — what he called a “cancer” on the region — were direct threats to the United States, and that he could achieve the seemingly contradictory goals of expanding American involvement in the war even as he sought to bring it to a close.
The scene in the hall was striking and somber: row after row of cadets, in their blue-gray uniforms, listening intently to a strategy that could put many of them in harm’s way. “If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow,” Mr. Obama said. “So no, I do not make this decision lightly.” He called on foreign allies to step up their commitment, declaring, “This is not just America’s war.”
He delivered a pointed message to Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, saying, “The days of providing a blank check are over.”
Addressing critics who have likened Afghanistan to Vietnam, Mr. Obama called the comparison “a false reading of history.” And he spoke directly to the American people about the tough road ahead.
“Let me be clear: none of this will be easy,” Mr. Obama said. “The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will be an enduring test of our free society, and our leadership in the world.”
With the economy weak and the issue of jobs foremost on Americans’ minds, the president conceded that the new strategy would carry an expensive price tag, which he put at an additional $30 billion in the first year.
Yet with some Democrats talking of a war surtax, Mr. Obama offered no details of how he intended to pay for his new policy, saying only that he was “committed to addressing these costs openly and honestly.”
White House advisers said they expected the administration would do so in the coming weeks, as officials including Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testify on Capitol Hill starting Wednesday.
The approach laid out by Mr. Obama — not so much a new strategy as a doubling down on the one he embraced earlier this year — incorporated the basic goals and came close to the force levels proposed in the counterinsurgency plan that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top military commander in Afghanistan, put forward in September.
In that report, General McChrystal said, in stark language, that unless significantly more troops were sent, the war in Afghanistan was likely to be lost.
But by including an explicit timetable to begin a withdrawal, Mr. Obama highlighted the seemingly conflicting pressures defining the debate over how to proceed: to do what is necessary to ensure that the region is not a launching pad for attacks on the United States and its allies, and to disengage militarily as quickly as possible.
Senior administration officials suggested, however, that any initial withdrawal starting in mid-2011 could be very limited, depending on the military situation at that point.
“The pace, the nature and the duration of that transition are to be determined down the road by the president based on the conditions on the ground,” said Michèle A. Flournoy, under secretary of defense for policy.
The initial political reactions showed the crosscurrents facing the White House. Republicans applauded the buildup of troops but questioned the commitment to a timetable for bringing them home.
“Setting a draw-down date before this surge has even begun is a mistake, and it sends a mixed message to both our friends and our enemies regarding our long-term commitment to success,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.
But among many Democrats, the response ranged from noncommittal to outright opposition.
“I see no good reason for us to send another 30,000 or more troops to Afghanistan when we have so many pressing issues — like our economy — to deal with in this country,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York.
Mr. Obama is calculating, administration officials said, that the explicit promise of a drawdown will impress upon the Afghan government that his commitment is not open-ended.
Mr. Obama was less clear publicly on how he planned to address the issue of Pakistan, which many administration officials say will prove to be a far more intractable problem in the long term than Afghanistan.
Administration officials said that Mr. Obama had signed off on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency to expand C.I.A. activities in Pakistan. The plan calls for more strikes against militants by drone aircraft, sending additional spies to Pakistan and securing a White House commitment to bulk up the C.I.A.’s budget for operations inside the country.
The expanded operations could include drone strikes in the southern province of Baluchistan, where senior Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, officials said.
The new Afghanistan strategy draws heavily on lessons learned from Mr. Bush’s “surge” and strategy shift in Iraq in 2007, which Mr. Obama opposed.
In addition to the influx of troops and the training of the Afghan Army, administration officials said they were taking other lessons from the Iraq buildup, like empowering local security forces to stand up to Taliban militants in their communities and enhancing the training of national forces by embedding American troops with Afghan counterparts and later pairing American and Afghan units to fight side by side.
The 30,000 troops that Mr. Obama is sending are part of what one administration official characterized as a short-term, high-intensity effort to regain the initiative against the Taliban.
Administration officials said that they were hoping to get a commitment for an additional 5,000 to 8,000 troops from NATO allies — perhaps as early as Friday at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels — which would bring the number of additional troops in Afghanistan to close to the 40,000 that General McChrystal was seeking.
Mr. Obama is sending three of the four brigades requested by General McChrystal. The first Marines will begin arriving as early as Christmas, and all forces will be in place by May, a senior administration official said.
The 30,000 new American troops will focus on securing and protecting the country’s top population centers, including Kabul, Khost and Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual capital. Military officials said that two brigades would go south, with the third going to eastern Afghanistan.
Military officers said that they could maintain pressure on insurgents in remote regions by using surveillance drones and reports from people in the field to find pockets of Taliban fighters and to guide attacks, in particular by Special Operations forces.
The strategy also includes expanded economic development and reconciliation with less radical members of the Taliban.
In addition, Mr. Obama is making tougher demands on the Afghan government; he spent an hour on the phone Monday with Mr. Karzai, White House officials said, and pressed him on the need to combat the corruption and drug trafficking, which many Western officials say has fueled the resurgence of the Taliban.
During the conversation, Mr. Obama, described by one White House official as “very explicit,” pressed Mr. Karzai on the need to take steps that would show progress. Mr. Obama congratulated Mr. Karzai on setting up a corruption task force, but also pressed him on the need to make sure that officials appointed by the government are untainted by corruption.
Promising that he could “bring this war to a successful conclusion,” Mr. Obama set out a strategy that would seek to reverse Taliban gains in large parts of Afghanistan, better protect the Afghan people, increase the pressure on Afghanistan to build its own military capacity and a more effective government and step up attacks on Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
“America, we are passing through a time of great trial,” Mr. Obama said. “And the message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear: that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering.”
The military escalation Mr. Obama described and defended in his speech to a national television audience and 4,000 cadets at the United States Military Academy here, the culmination of a review that lasted three months, could well prove to be the most consequential decision of Mr. Obama’s presidency.
In his 33-minute address, he sought to convince an increasingly skeptical nation that the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the continued existence of Al Qaeda across the border in Pakistan — what he called a “cancer” on the region — were direct threats to the United States, and that he could achieve the seemingly contradictory goals of expanding American involvement in the war even as he sought to bring it to a close.
The scene in the hall was striking and somber: row after row of cadets, in their blue-gray uniforms, listening intently to a strategy that could put many of them in harm’s way. “If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow,” Mr. Obama said. “So no, I do not make this decision lightly.” He called on foreign allies to step up their commitment, declaring, “This is not just America’s war.”
He delivered a pointed message to Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, saying, “The days of providing a blank check are over.”
Addressing critics who have likened Afghanistan to Vietnam, Mr. Obama called the comparison “a false reading of history.” And he spoke directly to the American people about the tough road ahead.
“Let me be clear: none of this will be easy,” Mr. Obama said. “The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will be an enduring test of our free society, and our leadership in the world.”
With the economy weak and the issue of jobs foremost on Americans’ minds, the president conceded that the new strategy would carry an expensive price tag, which he put at an additional $30 billion in the first year.
Yet with some Democrats talking of a war surtax, Mr. Obama offered no details of how he intended to pay for his new policy, saying only that he was “committed to addressing these costs openly and honestly.”
White House advisers said they expected the administration would do so in the coming weeks, as officials including Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testify on Capitol Hill starting Wednesday.
The approach laid out by Mr. Obama — not so much a new strategy as a doubling down on the one he embraced earlier this year — incorporated the basic goals and came close to the force levels proposed in the counterinsurgency plan that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top military commander in Afghanistan, put forward in September.
In that report, General McChrystal said, in stark language, that unless significantly more troops were sent, the war in Afghanistan was likely to be lost.
But by including an explicit timetable to begin a withdrawal, Mr. Obama highlighted the seemingly conflicting pressures defining the debate over how to proceed: to do what is necessary to ensure that the region is not a launching pad for attacks on the United States and its allies, and to disengage militarily as quickly as possible.
Senior administration officials suggested, however, that any initial withdrawal starting in mid-2011 could be very limited, depending on the military situation at that point.
“The pace, the nature and the duration of that transition are to be determined down the road by the president based on the conditions on the ground,” said Michèle A. Flournoy, under secretary of defense for policy.
The initial political reactions showed the crosscurrents facing the White House. Republicans applauded the buildup of troops but questioned the commitment to a timetable for bringing them home.
“Setting a draw-down date before this surge has even begun is a mistake, and it sends a mixed message to both our friends and our enemies regarding our long-term commitment to success,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.
But among many Democrats, the response ranged from noncommittal to outright opposition.
“I see no good reason for us to send another 30,000 or more troops to Afghanistan when we have so many pressing issues — like our economy — to deal with in this country,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York.
Mr. Obama is calculating, administration officials said, that the explicit promise of a drawdown will impress upon the Afghan government that his commitment is not open-ended.
Mr. Obama was less clear publicly on how he planned to address the issue of Pakistan, which many administration officials say will prove to be a far more intractable problem in the long term than Afghanistan.
Administration officials said that Mr. Obama had signed off on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency to expand C.I.A. activities in Pakistan. The plan calls for more strikes against militants by drone aircraft, sending additional spies to Pakistan and securing a White House commitment to bulk up the C.I.A.’s budget for operations inside the country.
The expanded operations could include drone strikes in the southern province of Baluchistan, where senior Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, officials said.
The new Afghanistan strategy draws heavily on lessons learned from Mr. Bush’s “surge” and strategy shift in Iraq in 2007, which Mr. Obama opposed.
In addition to the influx of troops and the training of the Afghan Army, administration officials said they were taking other lessons from the Iraq buildup, like empowering local security forces to stand up to Taliban militants in their communities and enhancing the training of national forces by embedding American troops with Afghan counterparts and later pairing American and Afghan units to fight side by side.
The 30,000 troops that Mr. Obama is sending are part of what one administration official characterized as a short-term, high-intensity effort to regain the initiative against the Taliban.
Administration officials said that they were hoping to get a commitment for an additional 5,000 to 8,000 troops from NATO allies — perhaps as early as Friday at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels — which would bring the number of additional troops in Afghanistan to close to the 40,000 that General McChrystal was seeking.
Mr. Obama is sending three of the four brigades requested by General McChrystal. The first Marines will begin arriving as early as Christmas, and all forces will be in place by May, a senior administration official said.
The 30,000 new American troops will focus on securing and protecting the country’s top population centers, including Kabul, Khost and Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual capital. Military officials said that two brigades would go south, with the third going to eastern Afghanistan.
Military officers said that they could maintain pressure on insurgents in remote regions by using surveillance drones and reports from people in the field to find pockets of Taliban fighters and to guide attacks, in particular by Special Operations forces.
The strategy also includes expanded economic development and reconciliation with less radical members of the Taliban.
In addition, Mr. Obama is making tougher demands on the Afghan government; he spent an hour on the phone Monday with Mr. Karzai, White House officials said, and pressed him on the need to combat the corruption and drug trafficking, which many Western officials say has fueled the resurgence of the Taliban.
During the conversation, Mr. Obama, described by one White House official as “very explicit,” pressed Mr. Karzai on the need to take steps that would show progress. Mr. Obama congratulated Mr. Karzai on setting up a corruption task force, but also pressed him on the need to make sure that officials appointed by the government are untainted by corruption.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
World AIDS Day Observed With Solemn Rememberance
Today, December 1, marks World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day is designed to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS through educational programs, health screenings and much more. World AIDS Day also brings to light before an international audience, the far reaching global effects of this horrific disease. World AIDS Day also launches a global campaign to bring awareness, responsibility, and accountability to non third world countries to help in the providing of much needed medications to third world countries, the African Diaspora in particular, who do not have the means and cannot afford to provide the needed medical care to stop the spread of AIDS in their nations. As World AIDS Day is observed, let everyday be a day of rememberance and a call to action for us as a global community to do all that is neccessary to stop the spread of AIDS around the world...
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