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THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934
February 9 - 15, 2023
Vol. 89
New state laws establish Juneteenth holiday, ban hair discrimination By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer
O
n Feb. 2, the Minnesota House passed the Juneteenth holiday bill with a bipartisan vote of 126-1, following the Senate’s 57-8 vote the week before. “It’s taken a long time to get to this point,” said Rep. Ruth Richardson (DFL-District 52B), a second-term legislator from the Twin Cities. “I just want to reflect on the fact that I’m standing on the shoulders of a lot of people right now,” she said, acknowledging the long history of the legislation. The Juneteenth bill was first introduced in 1996 by the late Minnesota state representative Richard Jefferson. Richardson was among several scheduled speakers at the Feb. 3 bill signing at the state capitol. A large group of legislators, other elected officials, and longtime supporters stood behind Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as he signed the Juneteenth bill into law. “I hope it doesn’t get lost in
[By telling] the truth, we can reflect on how far we’ve come. We can reflect on how far we have to go, and what our individual responsibility is to make this country and make this state better,” said Flanagan. “Juneteenth is not just a look back, but [we are] also blessed to reconnect ourselves to that,” said Sen. Bobby Joe Champion (DFL-Minneapolis), the most senior state lawmaker of color who became the first Black person to serve as senate president when the state legislative session began last month. Before the Juneteenth bill signing, Walz also signed into law the CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race and cultural hair styles. Under the state’s Human Rights Act, race and culturally based discrimination is outlawed, but legislators and proponents wanted more explicit language put into law with the CROWN Act. The bill passed 111-19 in the House on Jan. 11 and 45-19 in the Senate on Jan. 26. “Discrimination has no place in Minnesota,” stressed Walz. “This wasn’t done just by Gov. Walz and lawmakers at the signing ceremony Photo by Charles Hallman ■ See CROWN on page 5
this bipartisan legislature to have advocates on both sides,” said Walz. “Juneteenth is a powerful celebration that was overdue to become an official holiday.” Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021, recognizes the announcement to Blacks in Texas on June 19, 1865 of the abolition of slavery. This was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after Robert E. Lee’s surrender
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at Appomattox in April 1865. With the passage of the bill, June 19 becomes an official state holiday in Minnesota. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, in briefly dismissing those critics of teaching Black history, including Juneteenth, added, “Our young people can handle the truth. And in fact, we deserve to know the truth. “As we’re talking about telling the truth and acknowledging our history…we acknowledge history and what has happened.
A FIRST
Two Black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl
NFL
Historic matchup highlights issues of coaching and ownership By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer
T
his Sunday’s Super Bowl features a historic first—two Black quarterbacks will be starting in the NFL season finale, Patrick Mahomes for the Kansas City Chiefs and Jalen Hurts for the Philadelphia Eagles. But
this first-time feat doesn’t erase the fact that the NFL has a longstanding history of racism when it comes to Black quarterbacks. That history of racism dates back to Fritz Pollard, the league’s first Black quarterback, who led the Akron Pros to the first NFL championship in 1920. Years later ■ See SUPER BOWL on page 5
Amir Locke’s family sues Minneapolis By H. Jiahong Pan Contributing Writer
Hanneman shortly after he was startled awake in a downtown Minneapolis apartment rented by a relative. The family of Amir Locke, who Hanneman’s team was executing a was killed last February by Minne- no-knock search warrant for materiapolis police in a downtown Minne- als related to a killing in St. Paul. No apolis apartment, is suing the City of names, including Locke’s, were listed Minneapolis and the officer involved on the warrant. Hanneman opened fire on in federal court. The Locke family’s legal team unveiled details of their Locke, later telling investigators he feared for his lawsuit in a press life because the conference on Frivictim possessed day, Feb. 3. They a gun. Body camargue that the era footage, howofficer who killed ever, showed that Amir and MinLocke aimed his neapolis police gun towards the engaged in racist floor and did not policing prachave his finger on tices that violated the trigger. Locke’s Fourth Hanneman and Fourteenth Amendment rights and resulted in was not charged in Locke’s killing, since state law allows for circumhis wrongful death. Locke was shot and killed by stances in which an officer observes Minneapolis Police Officer Mark a gun, even though Locke had a con-
“Our son’s Constitutional rights were violated on an alleged ban of noknock warrants.”
Karen Wells, mother of Amir Locke, speaks at a press conference. Photo by H. Jiahong Pan cealed carry permit. Hanneman had been sued twice before in federal court in the early 2010s. In the first case he was dismissed as a party, but he lost the second case.
However, Locke’s family and legal team—which includes Ben Crump, Antonio Romanucci and Jeff Storms— believe his rights were violated. They found that the MPD inconsistently trained its officers and believe Locke was targeted because of his race, citing data from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that found most no-knock warrants executed in Minneapolis involved BIPOC households. “It’s almost as if [the Founding Fathers] said the Fourth Amendment is too extravagant for Black people to enjoy,” said Attorney Ben Crump at Friday morning’s news conference. Although many residents believed no-knock warrants were banned by Mayor Jacob Frey at the time of the shooting, the City in fact lifted the moratorium in May of 2022. “Our son’s Constitutional rights were violated on an alleged ban [of] no-knock warrants,” said Amir’s father, Andre Locke. The family is
seeking damages to be determined by a jury and for the Minneapolis Police Department to be placed in receivership to ensure its officers are adequately trained and supervised. This comes at a time when the City recently hired a new police chief and is negotiating a court-enforced agreement with the Department of Human Rights to reform policing while awaiting the outcome of a federal civil rights investigation. At the press conference, Locke’s parents expressed hope that the death of their son will effect change. “My son was a warrior. He showed that even in distress and not being able to see anything, that you open the doors for justice throughout this country,” said Andre Locke. “You will save lives. This is not in vain. You stood for something, Amir.” H. Jiahong Pan welcomes reader responses to hpan@spokesmanrecorder.com.
Omar remains a target for Republicans
Omar defends her service on Foreign Affairs
Republicans oust Rep. Omar from committee
By Chris Juhn Contributing Writer
MGN MSR News Services In what many political watchers called hypocritical, vengeful, and a show of strength by the new Republican majority, the House voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her past comments about Israel. The resolution to remove Rep. Omar from the panel
was approved 218-211 along party lines with one Republican member voting “present.” The GOP cited Omar’s tweets and comments from 2019 and 2021 in which she criticized pro-Israel politicians as being “all about the Benjamins” and her comparison of the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban. Both Democrats and ■ See COMMITTEE on page 5
A group of about 50 community members gathered at Dogwood Coffee in Minneapolis on Friday, Feb. 3 to show support for Representative Ilhan Omar, who was recently ousted from the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress. Several speakers kicked off the event with short, rousing speeches encouraging her to stay the course. After the speakers, Ilhan took over and addressed the crowd. “The fact that on the Foreign Affairs Committee I have always shown up as the person who wanted powerful people that have been
accused and committed war crimes to be held accountable,” said Rep. Omar, whose controversial views on Israel were cited as the reason for her removal. “Someone that understood that we can’t
continue to profess this idea of standing up for human rights and upholding international law, but not actually carry it out in reality,” she continued. “In the last four years that I have been on that
didn’t hear about that massacre, thank you.’ ‘I did not know this happened because of our country, thank you.’ “And I’ve also had people that said, ‘How dare you. Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to talk about our country that way?’ as if I am not also from this country.” As a citizen duly elected by my constituents, I represent their voices Photo by Chris Juhn and their perspectives, their cares and concerns committee [Foreign about our humanity and Affairs], I have done what gets done with our precisely that every tax dollars. But the other single year,” she said. more important truth of “In every single hearing, why they work so hard I have had members on for the last four years is, that committee come if you remember, McCarup and say, ‘I did not thy made the promise to know this, thank you.’ ‘I ■ See OMAR on page 5