Enslaved Africans, Insurance, Slavery, The Clotilda

by Jameelah Mullen

August 15, 2024

The Clotilda: Last Known US Slave Ship Should Remain Underwater, Experts Say

The ship is “too broken” and “too decayed” to be evacuated, archaeologists say.

The task force headed by the Alabama Historical Commission determined that the Clotilda, the last ship known to transport enslaved Africans to the United States, was too decayed to be extracted from the Mobile River. According to the 500-page report, researchers recommend that the best way to memorialize the ship is to keep it underwater.

“There is no other site in the world that presents such physical evidence as the Clotilda,” marine archeologist James Delgado told The Associated Press.

He continued, “Clotilda is the scene of the crime, so everything we did was in that crime scene investigation manner.”

After the Civil War, 32 freed survivors of Clotilda purchased land just outside of Mobile and established Plateau Village, now known as Africatown.

William Foster took the ship West Africa, where he illegally smuggled 110 Africans back to Alabama. Upon his return, he attempted to burn and sink the ship to hide the evidence of his crime.

The Clotilda remained undetected at the bottom of the Mobile River until it was discovered in 2019. The state then investigated whether the ship could be excavated and turned into a museum.

Delgado said it’s not impossible to evacuate parts of the ship, but it would be “difficult and costly.”

Despite the risks, some residents support the museum, stating that it would bring much-needed revenue to Africatown and the descendants of the enslaved Africans who arrived on Clotilda. But others disagree with this sentiment.

Patrica Frazier, a descendant of a Clotilda survivor, says she prefers to keep the ship underwater.

“I’m more inclined to have a memorial. We don’t need to spend $30 million to dig up a ship. And it will take too long to recover that money to directly benefit the community, she said to The Associated Press.

CEOs, corporate America, Kamala Harrs, endorsement

by Stacy Jackson

August 15, 2024

Vice President Harris Takes on Big Corporations: Asserts Federal Ban On Price Gouging

Vice President Harris plans to take on corporate landlords and investigate price fixing in an effort to lower costs for American families.

In an upcoming debate scheduled for Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, Vice President Harris will reportedly assert her plans for a federal ban on corporate price gouging on food, housing, and prescription drug costs. This proposal is expected to tackle inflation in an effort to lower Americans’ costs.

According to CBS News, the proposal marks Vice President Harris’s first major policy initiative since she entered the presidential race. Officials representing the Harris-Walz campaign shared that the policy strives to lower costs for middle-class families. “When I am president, I will continue that work to bring down prices,” Harris said at her Arizona rally earlier this month.

Promising to prioritize middle-class and working-class families, she stated, “I will take on big corporations that engage in illegal price gouging. I will take on corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families. I will take on Big Pharma and cap the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans.” Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz told supporters Harris is “a leader who wakes up every day on the side of the American people…She will take on the [fraudsters]…, stand up to the corporate interest, and put Middle America first.”

Recent polls revealed that inflation remains a high-priority concern among voters, and only 9% of registered voters believe the national economy is in “very good” condition. However, a poll earlier this month showed Vice President Harris trailed behind Donald Trump after 45% of registered voters ruled the former president as the candidate they believed would leave them in a better financial state. Only 25% voted in favor of Harris.

The Democrat’s remarks on large corporations follow her pledge to eliminate taxes on tips and increase the minimum wage. “When I am president, we will continue our fight for working families, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” Harris said during her packed Aug. 10 rally in Las Vegas at the University of Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center.

Market Watch noted Vice President Harris’ additional plans will provide resources that will enable small businesses to scale into competitors. At the same time, her administration works to closely investigate price fixing between big food companies and direct enforcement resources.

American Federation of Government Employees Select Leaders To Serve For Next 3 Years

by Sharelle B. McNair

August 15, 2024

American Federation of Government Employees Select Leaders To Serve For Next 3 Years

Congratulations, guys!

Delegates at the 2024 43rd National Convention voted in new leaders of the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Everett Kelley was elected as the union’s national president on Aug. 14, and Kendrick Roberson as the national vice president for women and fair practices. Delegates also reelected Eric Bunn Sr. as the national secretary-treasurer. Kelley has been an AFGE member since 1981 and served as president since February 2020.

With securing close to 59% of the vote, Kelley thanked convention attendees in Las Vegas for trusting him to serve another term. “I want to thank the AFGE delegates who put their trust in me to continue leading this great union for another term,” Kelley said. “The theme of our convention is ‘Together We Rise, United We Triumph,’ and I look forward to working with all of our members to continue building on our tremendous successes in the months and years to come.”

During his tenure as president, Kelley has helped generate record-breaking organizational growth, secured new contracts to increase workers’ protections and rights, and worked on significant policy and legislative victories, such as the largest federal employee raise in 40 years.

Bunn, who has served as the national secretary-treasurer since April 2020, also received high vote numbers, close to 68%. He once served three consecutive terms as national vice president for District 14. Roberson has been a member of AFGE Local 2429 since 2016 and once served as the chair of the AFGE YOUNG National Committee after being elected in 2020.

For the national race for national vice president for women and fair practices, Roberson was elected with nearly 54% of the final vote.

With more than 1,300 delegate convention attendees, labor unions have been a hot topic during the 2024 political season. According to KUCB, after executive orders signed in 2018 by former President Donald Trump took away the power of federal unions, members have been fearful of what will happen to their liberties if Trump is placed back in the White House.

His administration diminished their ability to bargain contracts and limited union representatives’ time assisting with member complaints. However, the Biden-Harris administration shed some light on the issue, as Vice President Kamala Harris played a pivotal role in returning federal employee unions. “Things have been kind of night and day different under this administration versus the previous administration,” Britta Copt, an Environmental Protection Agency veteran, said.

The 900-page plan, Project 2025, put together by the conservative Heritage Foundation, laid out troubling details of how a GOP administration would expand the president’s power and gut the federal workforce.

Tryshanda Moton, a senior aerospace engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says that would be scary. However, while holding a union leadership role with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Moton said she is willing to do what it takes to ensure Harris is the new President of the United States.

“We’ve sworn an oath to the Constitution to be representative constituents for the American public, and we don’t want to be replaced,” she said during a “Labor for Harris” Zoom call.

by Sharelle B. McNair

August 15, 2024

Work Conditions Of J.D. Vance’s Kentucky Startup Labeled A ‘Nightmare’

Well this can't be good....

CNN reports that the workplace conditions at GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s former startup, AppHarvest, are described as a “nightmare.”

After facing hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, AppHarvest declared bankruptcy in 2023, and dozens of former employees labeled their experience as less than pleasurable as Vance vowed to help the working-class Kentuckians. Public documents and interviews reveal employees were forced to work in grueling conditions inside the company’s greenhouse as temperatures soared into the triple digits.

Several complaints were filed with the US Department of Labor and a Kentucky regulator between 2020 and 2023, alleging workers were given limited water breaks at the startup and barely provided adequate safety gear. Some workers admitted to having suffered from heat exhaustion or injuries. However, state inspectors never found violations.

According to the New Republic, former AppHarvest worker Anthony Morgan accused the company of forcing him and co-workers to work on a 128-degree day. “I think about the hottest that I experienced was around 128 degrees,” Morgan said. “A couple days a week, you’d have an ambulance show up, and you’d see people leaving on gurneys to go to the hospital.”

Morgan said things were going great when he was first hired, and then things changed. Production started falling behind, and workers were pressured to step it up. Then, the company cut employee healthcare benefits and other costs, but hours were increased, and breaks decreased.

Vance invested in several Silicon Valley startups after the success of his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” During a Fox News interview, AppHarvest Founder Jonathan Webb said that the Ohio litigator gave him a $150,000 check to invest in AppHarvest while other investors invested $50,000 each. The startup caught Vance’s eye because of his guiding principles, claiming a business should not only turn a profit but also help American communities, as the reason behind his decision to invest.

As a food production company, AppHarvest promised a high-tech future for the farming community of Eastern Kentucky. Vance jumped on board early on as an investor, board member, and public pitchman for the indoor agriculture company. “It’s not just a good investment opportunity, it’s a great business that’s making a big difference in the world,” Vance said during a 2021 Fox Business interview on the same day the company went public in February.

While the company promised to hire within Kentucky lines, eventually, migrant workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and other countries were contracted. Then, in 2021, when Vance stepped down to launch his political bid for Ohio senator, the company started to drown in lawsuits filed by shareholders who were furious over plummeting stock prices and fraud allegations. Former employees wanted Vance and other board members to be held accountable for turning their back after misleading the public and their own investors. “Eastern Kentucky is well-known for people coming and going. They start up companies, then they disappear,” former AppHarvest worker Morgan said.

“They didn’t care about us.”

Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for Vance, released a statement saying the politician “was not aware of the operational decisions regarding hiring, employee benefits, or other workplace policies which were made after he departed AppHarvest’s board” and said he simply wanted the company to thrive. “Like all early supporters, JD believed in AppHarvest’s mission and wishes the company would have succeeded,” the statement read.

Stephen A. Smith, Kamala Harris,Tyreek Hill

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

August 15, 2024

Stephen A. Smith Accuses Kamala Harris of ‘Hiding’ At Pep Rallies And Avoiding Questions

Stephen A. Smith wants to know why Kamala Harris is busy holding rallies and not answering questions from reporters.

Kamala Harris has been out and about since taking over for Joe Biden as the official Democratic presidential nominee. But Stephen A. Smith wants to know why she’s busy holding rallies and not answering reporters’ questions.

The popular sports media personality took to his YouTube show on Aug. 13 to seemingly piggyback off conservative criticism of Harris having yet to sit down for an interview with a reporter since launching her presidential campaign.

“We’ve had one week, two weeks, three weeks, and one day since Joe Biden stepped aside. The only damn place we’ve seen Kamala Harris is at pep rallies,” he quipped. “What’s up? Somebody gotta say something, and it can’t just be the conservatives. Right is right.”

Smith confirms that Harris has indeed “got my vote.” But he’s still echoing a question many conservatives have asked since the vice president stepped up to run for president in 2024. Is Harris purposely avoiding the hard-hitting questions from reporters?

“I’m talking to my sister here. Come on now. You’re running for the presidency of The United States of America. You got my vote. You’re running for the presidency of the United States of America.”

“What you hiding for? And I mean hiding in plain sight. Somebody gotta say it. Somebody gotta say it,” he added.

With the race nearing the one-month mark since Biden stepped down from the race on July 21 and let Harris take the lead, Smith thinks the VP has had more than enough time to adjust and make room for interviews.

“Now, you can’t be running for the presidency of the United States. Not one single press conference. Not one single one-on-one sit-down interview where somebody gets to question you about the questions that we ask. That’s not fair. That’s not fair,” he explained.

It didn’t take too long for Smith’s take to catch the attention of conservatives, who used the clip to strengthen their argument against Harris.

“I almost NEVER agree with Steven A Smith!” Republican pundit Steve Cortes tweeted on Wednesday. “But good for him for calling out Kamala’s refusal to face questions — and the complicit media running interference for her…”

I almost NEVER agree with Steven A Smith!

But good for him for calling out Kamala’s refusal to face questions — and the complicit media running interference for her…pic.twitter.com/1ZPH1qFlHk
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) August 14, 2024

According to Smith, it’s within a conservative’s right to question Harris about not conducting any interviews now that she’s running for president. However, they can lay off the criticism regarding her ethnic background.

“If you’re a conservative and you’re out there lambasting her for it, ridiculing her for it, trying to torment her for it or whatever, it is perfectly within your right to do so. All of you anti-conservatives out there, shut the hell up! That’s a valid point,” Smith said.

“It ain’t valid to bring up her Blackness or Indian heritage and to try to point the finger at that nature. That’s nonsense. But to ask her about her record because she is attached to the Biden record is definitely apropos, especially when you were bragging about the record!”

The media has recently asked Harris’s campaign why she has yet to hold a press conference. According to a recent CNN appearance from one of her team members, a press conference is underway.

CNN: "Would it kill you guys to have a press conference?"

KAMALA SPOX: "You saw the ways in which they went across the battleground states."

CNN: "A campaign rally is not a press conference. She's the Vice President. She can handle the questions."

KAMALA SPOX: "We're gonna be… pic.twitter.com/v4oDLz2r4P
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 14, 2024

J.D. JD Vance, Donald Trump, vice preisdent

by Sharelle B. McNair

August 15, 2024

J.D. Vance Thinks The Purpose Of A ‘Postmenopausal Female’ Is To Raise Grandkids

Do you agree?

GOP Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance gave an unconventional take on the purpose of the “postmenopausal female”: to raise grandkids, TMZ reports.

During an April 2020 appearance on “The Portal” podcast, host Eric Weinstein proposed grandmothers raising grandkids is “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.” Vance then chimed in and talked about how beneficial it was to have his wife’s mother move in with them to take care of their newborn son. “She lived with us for a year,” Vance admitted.

After labeling it a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman,” he called it the most “transgressive thing I’ve ever done against sort of the hyper neo-liberal approach to the working family.” “My wife had this baby seven weeks before she started the clerkship, still not sleeping any more than an hour and a half, and her mom just took a sabbatical … .for a year and came and lived with us and took care of our kid for a year,” he said.

“And it’s just one of those things…this is what you do.”

His mother-in-law is a biology professor at a college in California, and he called her decision “painfully economically inefficient.”

Unearthed audio: JD Vance says he agrees that “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female” is to help raise grandchildren and that helping raise children is a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman” pic.twitter.com/yCyZss7kNY
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 14, 2024

While the interview is four years past, Vance’s postmenopausal comments have since gone viral, catching the attention of “The View” Host Alyssa Farah Griffin. According to Newsweek, Griffin reposted the clip on X and called for men to stay out of women’s business,“ writing: *shouts into void* Can men please stop analyzing women’s value to society based around their fertility/ menstruation/ if they have kids?” she wrote.

https://twitter.com/Alyssafarah/status/1823828258695340047

A spokesperson from Vance’s team accused the media of twisting the senator’s words. “The media is dishonestly putting words in JD’s mouth — of course, he does not agree with what the host said,” spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk said.

“JD reacted to the first part of the host’s sentence, assuming he would say: ‘That’s the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents.’ It’s a disgrace that the media is lying about JD instead of holding Kamala Harris accountable for her policies that caused sky-high prices for groceries and everyday necessities, a disaster at the southern border, and a historic drug overdose epidemic.”

The former White House aide in the Trump administration warned that the senator’s “radioactive” comments could ultimately hurt the Republican Party come November 2024. Vance is still catching heat for his 2021 interview when he said the country was run by “childless cat ladies.”

Kevin Durant’s Boardroom Partners With 24 Hour Fitness

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

August 15, 2024

Kevin Durant’s Boardroom Partners With 24 Hour Fitness

"Sports is at the heart of everything Boardroom does, and the skills you learn as a teammate on the court translates to every aspect of life," said Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman.

Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Boardroom announced that it has partnered with 24 Hour Fitness to help the company build its content, community engagement, and events surrounding the company.

The collaborative effort started at 24 Hour Fitness’s Falls Church, Virginia, location on Aug. 3, with a basketball skills academy led by Durant’s father, Wayne Pratt, who is the head coach of the AAU organization Team Durant. Eighteen gym members, children ages 12-17, joined Pratt and Team Durant staff members to participate in a series of 5 v 5 scrimmages, training drills, and discussions about the benefits of youth sports. They also talked about the future of AAU basketball and what it takes to “make it” as a youth athlete.

“Team Durant was established when Kevin [Durant] wanted to give back to the community that helped create his game, and we have always tried to pay that forward to the kids in the DMV area,” said Pratt in a written statement. “We have a staff that’s been really innovative and proactive, and that’s allowed us to grow and to impact kids far beyond those in our program.”

The partnership between Boardroom and 24 Hour Fitness will include events involving professional athletes and community organizations, including several sports, not just basketball. An upcoming event will feature a clinic with the Brooklyn Aces, a Major League Pickleball team.

“Sports is at the heart of everything Boardroom does, and the skills you learn as a teammate on the court translates to every aspect of life,” said Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman. “We’re excited to have begun our partnership with 24 Hour Fitness through this activation with Wayne Pratt and Team Durant and to continue to work with them to build community in different ways throughout the year.”

The company has been steadily making moves.

Boardroom recently announced that it has become an investor in the French football club Paris Saint-Germain. The partners struck a deal with LLC via Arctos Partners, a minority investor in the club.

BREAKING: 2x NBA Champion Kevin Durant has invested in Paris Saint-Germain through his Boardroom Sports Holdings, LLC via Arctos Partners, the strategic minority investor in the club.

Further details to be announced shortly. pic.twitter.com/pcXSJugqf6

— Boardroom (@boardroom) August 12, 2024

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

August 15, 2024

Afrika Bambaataa Has ‘Healing Moment’ With Accuser Who Refutes Assault Claims

One of Afrika Bambaataa's accusers is taking back his initial claims of being sexually abused by the hip-hop pioneer as a teenager.

One of Afrika Bambaataa’s accusers is taking back his initial claims of being sexually abused by the hip-hop pioneer as a teenager.

Ronald “Bee-Stinger” Savage, 59, made media headlines in 2016 when he came forward with accusations of being sexually assaulted by the Universal Zulu Nation founder when he was a teenager in the 1980s. Eight years later, Savage addresses his claims to clear up any misinformation after posing for a photo with Bambaataa (real name Lance Taylor) at a recent Zulu Nation event.

“Never underestimate the power of God when he intervenes in an affair; he sets everything straight,” Savage told AllHipHop.

According to Savage, Bambaataa never took advantage of him as a teenager. The highly regarded hip-hop figure was under the impression that Savage was of age during their “consensual” sexual encounter.

“Bambaataa is not a pedophile and, in my eyes, he was doing something that was consensual with someone that he thought was of age.”

Savage continued:

“I wish, back in 2016, I remembered about the fake ID. I wasn’t thinking about that; I had forgot about that. I was in deep depression and still dealing with the trauma as an adult. I want to apologize for the little kid that didn’t know anybody and just wanted to be down with this thing called hip-hop so I pretended to be older.”

Savage was among seven men who came forward to accuse Bambaataa of sexual misconduct. Since publicly accusing Bambaataa, Savage has become an advocate for sexual abuse victims, with a focus on those within the hip-hop community. Now, he’s using his experience to bring “healing” to those with similar experiences.

“This is something that took place 35 to over 40 years ago. This man has never been convicted of anything. Let it go. I needed to set the record straight [and get] my closure,” he says.

“I just hope this brings healing to people around the world. If I can have forgiveness and healing, so can you.”

Afrika Bambaataa is recognized for playing a crucial role in establishing hip-hop culture in the 1970s by transforming it from gang affiliations into a movement centered on peace, which he dubbed the Universal Zulu Nation. Modeled on “peace, unity, love, and having fun,” Bambaataa became notable for releasing genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip-hop culture. As one of the originators of breakbeat DJing, Bambaataa helped set the stage for what’s become known as breakdancing.

RELATED CONTENT: Afrika Bambaataa Named Cornell Visiting Scholar

by Jameelah Mullen

August 15, 2024

13-Year-Old Girl Dead Following Severe Allergic Reaction To One Sip Of Hot Chocolate

The victim’s mother said she informed the barista of her daughter’s allergies before ordering the drink.

Hannah Jacobs, a 13-year-old with severe allergies to dairy, fish, and eggs, died within hours of drinking a hot chocolate beverage from the Costa Coffee shop in London.

Abimbola Duyile, the victim’s mother, told an East London Coroner’s Court that she told the staff about her daughter’s severe allergy to dairy products and requested that they clean the equipment to avoid cross-contamination. Duyile said she was being “extra picky” because of the severity of her daughter’s allergies.

“I made sure the staff were aware that this was not a joke,” the mother said, according to The Telegraph.

Costa’s policy states that when customers disclose their dietary restrictions, workers should show them a book that includes ingredients and details about how the drink is made. Urmi Akter, the worker who took the order, said she did not show the book to Duyile.

“I did not show the mother the book as she told me washing the jug was fine. I thought she, as the mother, would know more about [it]”, Akter said, according to BBC News.

Reports show that Akter was told she did not have to answer questions if she felt they would incriminate her. As she testified, she had a Bengali interpreter with her. She declined to answer whether she was trained in her native language or if she received refresher courses. When asked if she knew what an allergen was, Akter declined to answer.

Akter claims that the mother ordered one extra hot and one normal hot chocolate and didn’t ask for soy milk. She only asked that the milk jug be cleaned between making drinks.

Forensic analysis of the coffee cups found no traces of soy milk but “’substantial levels” of milk proteins.

After purchasing the drinks, the mother and daughter visited a nearby dentist’s office. The 13-year-old took a sip of the drink and had an immediate allergic reaction.

Hannah then went to a pharmacy and received a 150mcg adrenaline Auto-Injector epi pen—a dosage recommended for children aged six and under. Hannah’s doctor said it was hard to predict if she would have survived if she had been given the recommended dosage of 300 mcg.

“150mcg was certainly too small a dose to be given,” he told the court, according to The Herald.

Voter, formerly incarcerated, convicted,

by Sharelle B. McNair

August 15, 2024

HeadCount And Xceleader Lead Massive Voter Registration Drive For HBCU Students

Through the Vote HBCU Program, 3,000 students have been registered on campuses as it aims to grow leadership.

According to a press release shared with Black Enterprise, HeadCount, the country’s leading nonpartisan youth voter registration initiative, and Xceleader, an HBCU alum organization, are collaborating to register thousands of students to vote through the Vote HBCU Program.

The program’s reach has reached new heights, aiming to teach the next generation of Black leaders. The 2024 program will host the “Say It Louder” tour, a series of block party events on the campuses of 40 historically Black colleges and universities to educate, mobilize, and get student hype about voting in November; the tour will consist of panel discussions on the core issues students are facing.

A significant part of the campaign includes a new fellowship program that will provide student organizers with a stipend to participate in a two-day training seminar to prepare for the Vote HBCU roles on their assigned campus. The program is designed to encourage student organizers to work within leadership and advocacy workshops that will also provide access to mentorship opportunities.

HeadCount’s Executive Director Lucille Wenegieme says programs like this are created at a vital time, as young voices need to be heard, and our democracy is under attack. “We are at a pivotal moment where the voices of young voters, especially from historically underrepresented communities, can shape the future of our democracy,” she said.

“The Vote HBCU program is about voter registration and so much more. It’s about empowering students to become advocates for their communities and to understand the power they hold. By expanding outreach and resources, we aim to inspire and mobilize the next generation of leaders.”

Since the program’s pilot launch in 2020, 3,000 voters have been registered through Vote HBCU, and we hope to register thousands more with the program expanding. Xceleader’s co-founder Tevon Blair described what it means to be an HBCU student: to be civically engaged. “HBCU students and alumni have always played a powerful role in historic movements that have moved our nation forward,” Blair said.

“We believe that to be an HBCU student means to be a civically engaged student, and Vote HBCU will ensure HBCU students across the country are educated, mobilized, and empowered to make informed decisions that will have an impact on their communities.”

With 40 HBCUs, both groups will need some help with student engagement. According to Queen City News, Divine Nine fraternity and sorority chapters of HBCUs are also mobilizing to heighten voter registration. The president of the Rock Hill chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Tiffany Hefney, says this is an ongoing effort regardless of how important the 2024 election is. “As we know, that voter registration is a critical first step in our democratic process,” Hefney said.

“That wasn’t a response to our current events. That was more of saying, ‘Just do what you’ve been doing for the past years.’ And that’s again: engage in our communities, making sure that whether you’re in the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, our communities have the information.”

The “Say It Louder” tour will launch on Aug. 16 at Virginia State University and end on Sept. 17 at Fort Valley State University.