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March 14, 2021

GREATER HOUSTON EDITION

Vol. 26, Issue 8

“Addressing Current & Historical Realties Affecting Our Community”

GRENITA LATHAN SAYS ‘BYE-BYE’ TO HISD

By: N.L. Preston

RED...BLUE...OR BLACK? VOTER SUPPRESSION CONTINUES

The Houston Independent School District announced that Dr. Grenita Lathan has accepted a new position with the Springfield Public Schools in Springfield, Missouri. In her three years as interim superintendent, Lathan has led HISD through many challenges and natural disasters, including Hurricane Harvey, the coronavirus pandemic and the recent winter storm. Lathan said her work is not over yet, and she will continue to work hard for the district in her final weeks. - AANI

By: Roy Douglas Malonson

The harder we fight and the more advancements we make, the more they try to bend or change the laws to keep us away from the polls. The ballot box is under attack, at least when it comes to minorities and the right to vote. Republicans across the country are pushing new voting restrictions aimed at, obviously, suppressing the Black vote, which triumphantly helped end Donald Trump’s reign of terror. The one-two knockout punch that Stacey Abrams, Rep. Jim Clyburn and others delivered to the GOP has the party making “Hail Mary” attempts to ensure they are not beaten again, especially after all courts found no proof in Trump’s voter fraud allegations. So what are Republicans doing now? They are trying to block our basic right to vote, and if we are not careful, they will get away with it. We, as Black people, usually just focus on the big-ticket elections, like presidential and mayoral races, but ALL ELECTIONS MATTER and ALL

VOTES MATTER! You need to do your research and vote for your councilmembers, commissioners, school board representatives and any other leadership positions in your community. What people don’t realize is that your elected officials make decisions on how much water goes in your commode, how much money you make, and how you eat, breathe and sleep. You pay taxes to support them to make decisions about you - so you need to make the right decisions about who you choose to represent you. You see what happened when Trump got into office, and if you look at it clearly, you see how many Black politicians actually agreed with Trump. Sometimes, even if they don’t say it outwardly, inaction can be considered being complicit. Are the leaders you have stood by standing up for you? Some right here in our own city are not. This is very dangerous for our future. Today, state legislators in at least 43 states are considering more than 250 bills that would make

it harder to vote. A plot is underway to suppress minority voters who overwhelmingly back Democratic candidates. A recent case presented to the U.S. Supreme Court centered around two Arizona election laws that Democrats say discriminate against Native American, Latinx and African American voters. One of the laws requires election officials to discard any ballots cast in the wrong precinct, and the other measure bans third-party ballot collection. With the heavy population of Native Americans in the area, with only about 26% of them living on a postal route, it would be difficult for them to cast a mail-in ballot, and there are even more issues with getting the rural population to the polls. To assist getting ballots in, community and party activists collect absentee ballots from people who don’t have cars so that the sealed ballots can be delivered Suppression cont’d page 2

WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY • AVOID PUBLIC SPACES OR EVENTS WITH MORE THAN 10 PATRONS • SANITIZE AND STOCK UP • AVOID TOUCHING YOUR EYES, NOSE AND MOUTH • PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE

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Tristar

Griselda Ramirez: Production

March 14, 2021

EDITORIAL Partin’ the Waters By Omowale Luthuli-Allen

Office: (713) 692-1892 Wednesday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Attempted Great Desecration and Assault on Black and People of Color Let us talk about what tomorrow will look like. Many of us are amateur forecasters, venturing to handicap the future with a bet. Will it be sunny or rain, will my team win the Super Bowl or who will prevail in a pivotal election? There is a great misunderstanding in the land, especially in Texas. Let us remember that Texas, along with Louisiana and other states, seceded from the Union before Lincoln took office. Texas seceded in February of 1861. The reigning governor General Sam Houston thought that the coming war was stupid and refused to take an oath of allegiance to the rebel confederacy and was forced to resign. We have been in a low-intensity war since white supremacists overturned Reconstruction. As Frederick Douglas the Great noted, sometimes the struggle is moral and sometimes the struggle is physical. My contention is that we have a new civil conflict looming, sometimes physical and always moral. Right now, we are riding in a slow-motion car crash that will accelerate into a Tiger

Woods type crash. The white supremacists have been smarting over their wounds, especially the ones that are dumb as a bag of hammers. In Texas and the nation, Republican leaders have sensed that their publics have given them permission to turn back the hands of time. They have introduced 253 bills to restrict voting by people of color and their allies. Stacey Abrams and the Georgia electoral phenomenon that shifted the Sen-

ate from red to blue has terrified them. Vice President Kamala Harris follows ex- President Barack Obama as an earthquake that frightens and makes them wet their pants. They are getting ready to play themselves again. Let me explain. Their reactionary behavior, that is, secession in 1861 prepared the basis for the destruction of slavery. Once the train left the station, there was no gear to reverse the momentum. Their 2021 actions will prepare the basis for the destruction of the Republican Party and the strengthening of a fragile democracy. Let me be clear, the insurrection of January 6, 2021 at the capitol was motivated and incited by a fear of Black power and a robust democracy. January 6 should

be seen as a dress rehearsal for a self-violation and the castration of the white supremacists’ ideology and practice. The Black voter tide in Detroit, Philly and Atlanta was a tipping point to the weakened self-esteem of the white supremacy party and its leaders. Terrifying to the Texas Republican Party are the following words and phrases. • Purple to blue • Voting Rights Act • Section 5 – states and localities with a history of race discrimination in voting were subject to “preclearance” of their voting polices by the Department of Justice. • Run changes in elections by the federal government and show that they were not discriminatory before putting them into effect. • Thus, King Abbot closing NRG stadium in 2020 as a voter drop location would have probably failed the legitimacy and nondiscrimination test. Our county-Harris- is bigger than 11 states. • Automatic and Same day Voting Registration • Nationwide Early Voting Never forget that the Biden-Harris victory has the zombies’ hell-bent on revenge. Their calculus is wrong. They will fail again... They will fail because we are going to out educate, organize, mobilize and vote. They will fail because we will mobilize all the people to do more than vote... The rest is for your imagination. - AANI

GREATER HOUSTON EDITION

Suppression cont’d page 2 to a post office or drop box. The Republicandominated state legislature wants to make such assistance a felony. Trying to restrict those ballots is just another obvious method of voter suppression. In the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting and lays out the standard for determining when it exists, Section 2 of the law says any measure which “results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the U.S. to vote an account of race or color” is illegal. Chief Justice John Roberts essentially said that times had changed and that the law, in treating some states differently from others, was unconstitutional. But if you look back in history, Roberts was not favorable of the Voting Rights Act, dating back to his younger days as an aide in the Ronald Reagan Administration, when he unsuccessfully urged the president not to sign the amended law. Yet today, he presides over a 6-to-3 conservative majority on a court on the issue. So who is really fighting for you? Let us not forget, 56 years ago, John Lewis was nearly killed by Alabama state troopers on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,

alongside hundreds of heroic women, men and youth on what would become known as “Bloody Sunday.” His Voting Rights Act could be one of our best defenses. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is proposed legislation introduced after Lewis’ death. The legislation would restore parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many of which were struck down by the United States Supreme Court in 2013 by Shelby County v. Holder. Particularly, it would bring back the VRA’s requirement that certain states preclear certain changes to their voting laws with the federal government. If enacted, this legislation would help protect voters from racial discrimination and voter suppression. Can’t you see? History is beginning to repeat itself. We are not out of the woods yet! In fact, we will NEVER be out of the woods until all of our people understand the power of the vote. Every time we think we are getting closer, they (Whites) keep moving the goalposts. Lots of white folks still believe blacks have no rights in this country. That’s the bottom line and they are trying to take away our power to choose as a way to strike us down. Don’t let them. Stay out front. Keep exercising your right to vote now more than ever and make your voices heard. - AANI

GREATER HOUSTON EDITION

March 14, 2021

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GREATER HOUSTON EDITION

CHANGE IS ROOTED IN

WOMEN’S HISTORY Month

A time to celebrate the trailblazers of the past, applaud the changemakers of the present and support the limitless potential for women of the future.

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