From Baton Rouge to Minneapolis, why black lives do matter By Winford K. Rice Jr.
tive police forces during the past week have renewed a sense of urgency across the country, leading to civic demonstrations, protests and political upheaval. The social contestation we are witnessing as a response to these shootings is a reignited attempt to negotiate hegemonic
infrastructures that systematically depreciate the quality of life for black and brown people. Yet, mainstream media outlets have diverted these racially charged shootings to matters concerning the sanctity and preservation of police lives over others. This becomes problematic given that black people cannot jettison their blackness Please turn to A5
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It is an irrefutable premise that all lives matter, but recent tragedies from Baton Rouge, La., to Minneapolis to Dallas have evinced that some restrictions apply. The egregious executions of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minneapolis by members of the respec-
Commentary
JULY 14-16, 2016
Anguish of a nation From memorial services to protests, numerous questions arise after senseless killings Free Press staff, wire reports
Eric Gay/Associated Press
Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown receives a hug Tuesday from First Lady Michelle Obama as she and President Obama attend the memorial service for the five slain law enforcement officers in the Texas city.
Sanders gives Clinton the nod Reuters
Portsmouth, N.H. Democrat Bernie Sanders endorsed former rival Hillary Clinton for president in a display of party unity Tuesday, describing her as the best candidate to fix the nation’s problems and beat Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election. With Mrs. Clinton nodding in agreement beside him, Mr. Sanders put aside their bitter campaign for the Democratic nomination and said she would take up the fight to ease economic inequality, make college more affordable and expand health care coverage for all Americans. “This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face. And there is no doubt in my mind that, as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that,” he told a raucous crowd in
Jim Cole/Associated Press
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her former opponent, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, present a united front Tuesday during a rally in Portsmouth, N.H., where Sen. Sanders endorsed her for president.
Portsmouth, N.H., that included plenty of vocal Bernie Sanders supporters. “I intend to do everything I
can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States,” the U.S. senator from Vermont said.
Gravely resigns NAACP post By Jeremy M. Lazarus
After three weeks of mulling the decision, Jack Gravely is stepping down as interim executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP. He delivered his resignation Monday via email to state NAACP President Linda Thomas and other members of the executive board. He told the board he would end his 15-month tenure Friday, July 15, giving him time to clean out his office. He said two staff members will remain in the state office after he departs. “The lights will not be turned off,” he said. Reached Tuesday, Ms. Thomas said Mr. Gravely made the decision without any board pressure. “The board has accepted his
resignation with regret,” she said. She said his service “is appreciated,” and added that she expects Mr. Gravely, an NAACP Life Member, would continue to be active in the organization and to speak out on the civil rights issues for which it advocates.
Ms. Thomas said Mr. Gravely’s resignation arrived just before this week’s start of the national NAACP convention in Cincinnati. She said that once she and others return after the convention ends July 20, a special meeting will be
His endorsement, five weeks after Mrs. Clinton became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, brought the most prominent holdout in the party’s liberal wing into her camp. Mr. Sanders threw Mrs. Clinton his support less than two weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where she is to be formally nominated. “I can’t help but reflect on how much more enjoyable this election will be now that we are on the same side,” Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Sanders. “Thank you, Bernie, for your endorsement, but more than that, thank you for your lifetime of fighting injustice.” Mr. Trump ridiculed the move in a series of Twitter posts, saying Mr. Sanders had abandoned the supporters who flocked to his insurgent campaign to rein in Wall Street and get big money out of politics. “Bernie Sanders endorsing Crooked Hillary Clinton is like Occupy Wall Street endorsing Goldman Sachs,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. In a statement, the Trump campaign said Mr. Sanders was now officially part of the rigged system the senator had criticized during his long primary battle with Mrs. Clinton. “Bernie’s endorsement becomes Exhibit A in our rigged system — the Democrat Party is disenfranchising its voters to benefit the select and privileged
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“Can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible …?” The late Rodney King spoke those memorable words as he called for calm in 1992 after the acquittal of four white police officers who were videotaped savagely beating him triggered riots in Los Angeles. His questions still hang over a nation reeling from more horrific violence involving police and AfricanAmericans, like a terrible movie in which the story line remains the same and only the Mr. Sterling Mr. Castile participants change. This time, the uproar was triggered last week by police shootings of African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota, the graphic images from which were spread through social media. The violence then was capped last Thursday evening by an embittered African-American war veteran’s stunning ambush of police in Dallas that left five law enforcement officers dead and seven other officers and two civilians wounded. Nearly two years after the slaying of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., turned the spotlight on police killings and mistreatment of African-Americans, the wrenching debate over race and criminal justice seems as intense as ever. On Tuesday, President Obama used a memorial service in Dallas for the slain officers to appeal to Americans to do more to overcome the racial divisions and mutual suspicions that undermine police-community relations. But the president seemed uncertain whether he and the country are up to the task. Please turn to A5
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Kenneth Parham delivers a Black Power salute as he and his son, Kartier, 5, listen to a poet from Richmond’s Lyric Ave. The pair participated in the RVA Community Unity Shootout on Saturday at Byrd Park. Local photographer Connie McGowan organized the event to bring police and residents together in the wake of the police slayings in Dallas.
A Zika virus cure?
Research at VCU supports claims of new antiviral drug By Jeremy M. Lazarus
When he first published a paper 18 months ago detailing a kind of “miracle” drug that could destroy every virus and bacteria that plagues mankind, Virginia Commonwealth University researcher Paul Dent found his work derided as too good to be true. Now in a newly published study involving an international team, Dr. Dent and his VCU research-
Dr. Dent
ers have confirmed the AR-12 treatment works as advertised through laboratory tests and animal studies. The article appearing last month in the Journal of Cell Physiology reported that the treatment is effective against a host of viruses, including drugresistant strains of HIV, Ebola,
flu, mumps and measles. The new findings suggest that this breakthrough treatment — a drug derived from the arthritis remedy Celebrex — also could take on the fast-spreading Zika virus that threatens pregnant women’s unborn babies, as well as drug-resistant bacteria. According to Dr. Dent, the key challenge is to Please turn to A4