January 11, 2025 - January 17, 2025 The Afro-American A5 THE BLACKwww.afro.com MEDIA AUTHORITY • AFRO.COM $2.00 $1.00
Volume 133 No. 24
Volume 123 No. 20–22
AP Photo/ Kent Nishimura
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
JANUARY 11, 2025 - JANUARY 17, 2025
Americans across the country are mourning the death of former President Jimmy Carter, shown here lying in state in the nation’s capital. Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the eulogy for Carter, the 39th president of the United States, who captured hearts as a man of the people with a passion for improving civil and human rights.
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers eulogy for Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. president By Bill Barrow, Jonathan J. Cooper and Farnoush Amiri The Associated Press
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Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation’s capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington on Jan. 7 for state funeral rites that featured the kind of bipartisan praise and ceremonial pomp the Georgia Democrat rarely enjoyed at his political peak. The military honor guards, a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue and a service in the Capitol Rotunda continued public commemorations for Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100. Services included his state fu-
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neral, held Jan. 9 at the National Cathedral. After the funeral, the former president’s body was returned to his hometown of Plains, Ga., for burial beside his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023. As the sun set outside the Capitol on Jan.7, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — none of whom were old enough to vote in Carter’s first national campaign — celebrated his faith, military service and devotion to service more than anything he did in politics. “To be sure, his presidency was not without its challenges and international crises,” said Harris, for
whom Carter cast his final presidential ballot this fall. But she described him nonetheless as “that all-too-rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace.” As a presidential candidate in 1976, Harris noted, he slept in the homes of his supporters to “share a meal with them at their table and listen to what was on their minds.” Thune, the newly elected majority leader, ticked through Carter’s legacy beyond the White House, including his hands-on contributions to rebuilding homes through Habitat For Humanity. “First and foremost a faithful servant of his creator, and his fellow man,” said Thune, a South
Dakota Republican. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who was just four years old when Carter was inaugurated, recalled his fellow Southerner as a man “willing to roll up his own sleeves to get the work done.” Carter’s remains, which had been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Jan. 4, left the Atlanta campus the morning of Jan. 7, accompanied by his children and extended family. Special Air Mission 39 departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before Carter was brought to Washington. The former president lay in state
in D.C. Jan. 7 and again Jan. 8 before his remains were moved to the National Cathedral. There, President Joe Biden spoke of Carter, his longtime ally during the funeral service. Carter never traveled as president on the iconic blue and white Boeing 747 variant that is known as Air Force One when the sitting president is on board. It first flew as Air Force One in 1990 with President George H.W. Bush. Many of the rituals are typical of what follows a president’s death — the Air Force rides to and from the Beltway, the horse-drawn caisson in the capital, the Lincoln catafalque in the rotunda. Continued on A3
Congressional Black Caucus N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James welcomes new members at recuses herself from investigation into swearing-in ceremony beating death of Robert L. Brooks By Catherine Pugh Special to the AFRO On Jan. 3 in Washington, D.C. the Congressional Black Caucus of the 119th Congress held a ceremonial swearingin for its 62 members. Included in the number were nine new members. Among the nine new members were two new United States Senators, former Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Delaware Congresswoman Lisa Blunt-Rochester. Both ladies follow in the footsteps of the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate in 1993, Carolyn Mosley Braun, of Ill. Continued on A3
By Aria Brent AFRO Staff Writer abrent@afro.com
Photo is courtesy of Congressional Black Caucus
Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.District 9) is the new chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
On Jan. 2 New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office is recusing itself from the investigation into the beating death of Robert L. Brooks. James appointed Onondaga District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick. Brooks was beaten while handcuffed on Dec. 9 and died in the early morning hours of Dec. 10. The brutal assault was recorded, even though officers did not turn on their body cameras to document the attack. As a result, the beating was recorded in “standby mode” with no sound. James released the tapes in late December, sparking outrage from the public and prison reform advocates. Now, James has appointed another prosecutor to handle the case. “Earlier today, after much consideration, research and review, my office decided to
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recuse itself from the investigation of the correction officers involved in the events preceding the death of Mr. Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County,” said
Continued on A3
AP Photo/ Mary Altaffef
New York Attorney General Letitia James is no longer handling the investigation regarding the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten while handcuffed inside of Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9.