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Myrlie Evers Speaks Out On Reappointment Of Rudy Crew To Leadership Role At Medgar Evers College

Editor, Our Time Press
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Myrlie Evers Speaks Out On Reappointment Of Rudy Crew To Leadership Role At Medgar Evers College

The following letter, shared to BK Reader, July 27, was reportedly written by Myrlie Evers-Williams, an American civil rights activist and journalist who worked for more than three decades to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her husband and civil rights activist Medgar Evers.


The letter to the CUNY Board of Trustees concerns the reappointment of President Rudolph Crew to Medgar Evers College for the 2020-2021 academic year, amid pushback and protest from a group of faculty, staff and students.


Her testimony summarizes her agreement to have the College named after Medgar Wiley Evers 50 years ago and expresses concern that President Crew has been accepted back into the College.


BK Reader reported, “This is a public document and part of the record of testimonies forwarded to CUNY Board of Trustees.” (Visit: https://www. bkreader.com) For clarity, Our Time Press is reaching out to Ms. Evers-Williams’ office, Mr. Crew, CUNY Communications and principals on both sides of this evolving issue.

Dear Chairman Thompson and Members of the CUNY Board of Trustees: 
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1963 
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on an important and vital issue concerning Medgar Evers College. It is with deep regret that I write you at this time concerning the Chancellor Rodriquez’s recent announcement that he is recommending to continue the position of President of Medgar Evers College to Dr. Rudolph F. Crew through the end of June 2021.


My family and I were not only shocked by the communication, but appalled by the insensitivity to the students, community and family outcry for a better college experience that such a decision was reached. 
As our family expressed in 1969 and since, to happily agree for College #7, to be named after my late husband, it was with the understanding that the University and community would honor not only his name, but also his legacy.
Our family believes deeply in historically Black colleges and the missions they represent. While Medgar Evers College is a Public Black Institution (PBI), it has always been the expectation of the family that Medgar Evers College would model and reflect the standards of excellence of sister HBCUs and follow the mission of CUNY in its quest for access and excellence.


The legacy of my late husband, Medgar Wiley Evers, has been honored and respected throughout America and far beyond. When Medgar Wiley Evers was not able to speak at City College’s commencement in 1963 because he had been assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the commencement speech.
“Our deep concerns have turned to extreme disappointment regarding the rapid downward descend of the College and the embarrassment it has become to the family, the Founders, the Brooklyn Community and quite frankly, the nation.”
My family and I were more than pleased when the community leaders of Bedford Stuyvesant and Central Brooklyn, requested our permission to recommend to the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York, that the new college being planned for Brooklyn, New York (1969) be named after my husband. The recommendation was accepted. Black Brooklyn’s long struggle for a college was finally achieved, and it would be named Medgar Evers College (1970).


At this time however, our deep concerns have turned to extreme disappointment regarding the rapid downward descend of the College and the embarrassment it has become to the family, the Founders, the Brooklyn Community and quite frankly, the nation.
As an institution of higher learning, adopted and embraced by the community 50 years ago, it was the intention of the Founders for it to represent, demonstrate, and deliver the highest of academic integrity, moral and ethical values. We give our utmost respect to those individuals who have and continue to sacrifice much to ensure that this senior college was established in such a diverse and engaged community as Central Brooklyn.


It is for that reason that I again write the Board of Trustees to express that I am appalled and surprised to learn that this President has been accepted back to the University following his announcement to the Medgar Evers college community that he planned to take a position as Superintendent of the DeKalb County School District in Georgia, effective 
July 1, 2020. It is discreditable that CUNY would reappoint a President whose past record of leadership has been questioned by other educational institutions across the nation in both the K-12 and the College system. 


We, the family, strongly resent a decision that will continue to send the college in a downward spiral through expedience, complacency, silence, “benign neglect,” or friendship. In doing so, the University appears to be complicit in exacerbating a deteriorating situation in an Institution that carries our family name. 
We are aware of the many reports that have demonstrated lack of performance administratively and in management as reflected in the University’s own assessment documents (PMP) for the past five years. Further, in these documents, the College represents the lowest among CUNY in effectiveness and accountability in the areas of admissions, retention, transfers, graduation rates, institutional development, and faculty recruitment since the President’s arrival at Medgar Evers College.


For an institution, that should have many more young administrators and creative and gifted scholars to face students, many have left the institution of Medgar Evers College for other CUNY institutions because of incompetence, insecurity, intimidation and unparalleled mediocrity from its leadership. For the record, in July 2013, the administrative leadership announced their ambitious Strategic Plan for the “25s”: 25% increases in enrollment, retention, graduation rates, and fundraising.


To this date, not from our observation, but CUNY records reveal that the college leadership has not fulfilled the goals of this strategic plan, nor is there a documented current strategic plan that has been adopted by the College. Lastly, the so-called Pipeline that the Chancellor referred to in his letter recommending the President’s reinstatement, may theoretically be consistent with elements of CUNY’s mission, but it has been a complete failure at Medgar Evers College and a laughing stock in the Brooklyn community. (Please review the data and even the College’s website). 
These concerns are amongst many that were presented to Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriquez and Governor Cuomo and as I stated, the Chancellor informed me that this matter would be handled by the Chairman William Thompson of the Board and the Trustees of CUNY following the report by the AACU panel. 
Medgar Evers College has been viewed as a Beacon of Hope and Opportunity, and we believe that the University 50 years ago, was committed to ensuring that the mission and legacy would be honored and reflective of Medgar Wylie Evers’ sacrifice for justice and social equality.


Unfortunately, we question CUNY’s commitment and courage to right a terrible wrong at this time, and in view of what’s at stake for our young people who come to Medgar Evers College expecting high standards, steps need to be taken immediately to avoid having students short-changed and treated as second-class students. It is with this concern and in this spirit, that the family and I come before you today and provide this testimony. 


Respectfully, 
Mrs. Myrlie Evers
Family of Medgar Wiley Evers
Represented by Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette 

Lessons of Non-Violence, Hard to Learn

David Mark Greaves
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Lessons of Non-Violence, Hard to Learn

John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time on his final journey home. He has left us to continue on our own journey, and we are on unusually rough road that looks like it’s worsening up ahead.


The clashes in the streets of Portland, Oregon, is reminiscent of what we see happening in dictatorships around the world. Federal troops, unmarked cars, no identification, using tear gas, rubber bullets, flash grenades and batons against citizen protests. The only missing element are armored vehicles.


President Trump sees how easily he can provoke a violent response to his violent posture, so therefore he wants to send tens-of-thousands more federal agents to other cities. He needs the inevitable resulting violence to run in ads for his reelection campaign. He is a malevolent being who feeds off of violence, hate and fear.
Not only does he get what he wants from an aroused populace, he gives cover for agent provocateurs and innocent folks who have been targeted for disinformation and filled with righteous anger.


The lesson of non-violence that Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. John Lewis, and the thousands of others who took the beatings, is a hard one to learn. And Trump counts on that.
Special Counsel Robert Muller said the Russians never stopped intervening in our elections and will most certainly continue in the fall. No one should be surprised if the Russian state has something to do with the violence in the street. Not directly of course. But in all the ways documented in the Muller report. Through social media posts, dark web sites, false identities, self-deleting notices and all the updated and refined stratagems they’ve had four years to hone and improve.


Given the smackdown a President Biden promised to administer, Vladimir Putin may feel he should go all in on disrupting the election process, in order to give his useful idiot something to hang a claim of a rigged election on and refuse to leave office.
This is not an impossible thought. Trump owns the executive branch, including Attorney General William Barr at the Justice Department and the Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliff. In the judiciary, the Republicans have confirmed 200 lifetime federal judges, shaping the judicial branch for a generation.


The Republicans in Congress, Senate and House, are following the no-need-to-speak-its-name white male playbook: They intend on keeping this a white man’s country for as long as possible. Not just financially. They already have a lock on that. But socially as well. So, they will suppress the vote and insist the mail-in ballots are fraudulent. Trump will have the Department of Justice, the Director of National Intelligence and Vladimir Putin on his side.
If it should come to that, congressional Republicans will have to decide: White supremacy and chaos or the Constitution and peace.


Or maybe Trump will say, “Okay, I guess I’m the loser. How can I help the transition?”

Crossing Over

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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Crossing Over

In Selma, Alabama, Sunday, July 26, 2020, the casket of John R. Lewis, an Alabama sharecropper’s son, national leader and Civil Rights icon, crossed the controversial Edmund Pettus Bridge pulled by a horse-drawn carriage over a carpet of delicate deep-red roses. It moved slowly near the site where, on March 7, 1965, the blood of Lewis, among some 600 other marchers, was splattered after a bludgeoning. That day, they had begun a 54-mile journey from Selma to the state Capitol of Montgomery. They were commemorating the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been shot the month before by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother during a civil rights demonstration. In addition to drawing attention to America’s systemic racism and unjust practices, Mr. Lewis, then 25, was building support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Every year since, for 55 years, Lewis has travelled back to the Bridge to journey with hundreds of others, unheeded, to the other side. Sunday was the last time. For him.


Whenever a great leader passes, our thoughts swing to those who walked in the decedent’s path, during the icon’s lifetime. Activation of the message of the beloved’s missions during his or her lifetime gives rich meaning to “walking in the footsteps.” So, for our readers, there was no need to search far and wide; deep into the archives; or away from the neighborhood to find someone worthy to speak to the honorable Mr. Lewis’ legacy. The Rev. W. Taharka Robinson, founder of the Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition, has actively fought to preserve the memory of all of our Civil Rights Era heroes. He and his wife, Bianca, and their Coalition have consistently rallied young and older, to remember young Brooklyn victims of violence, leading protest marches, for instance, on behalf of innocent, but silenced gunshot victims like one-year old Davell Gardner (in photo below). They coordinate field trips for teens, pre-teens and their guardians from this borough to Civil Rights landmarks in such places as Montgomery, Birmingham, Tuskegee, the highlight of which is Rev. Taharka’s scholarly lectures and meditative prayers on each side of the “Bridge to Selma,” a bridge to deep awareness and rediscovery … following in the footsteps of Mr. Lewis.


So, yesterday, we called Rev. Taharka requesting a plain and simple eulogy. He delivered these words: “Congressman John Lewis was the complete epitome of Leadership: He stood up, when others sat down. He got into good trouble — necessary trouble! — to redeem The Soul of America. Congressman John Lewis taught us to speak up when things were Not right, Not fair and Not Just. To the Distinguished Gentleman from Georgia, rest in peace and majesty.”


Mr. Lewis died July 17 at 80 from pancreatic cancer. Today, his funeral takes place at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church Horizon Sanctuary at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park in Atlanta. Three living presidents – Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – are confirmed to attend, with Obama — who awarded Democratic Congressman Lewis, a Presidential Medal of Freedom — delivering the eulogy.
(Bernice Elizabeth Green) Photo: John Bazemore/AP

The Black Business Conundrum

Marlon Rice
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The Black Business Conundrum

Two weeks ago, I was waiting in a social distancing line to get into a Korean fish market in my neighborhood. It is a fish market that I’ve been patronizing for years; decent prices, good variety, the kind of place where you enjoy shopping because you can get what you want. A friend of mine that does outreach work in the community happened to be walking past. We exchanged greetings and through his mask he said,
“You know, there’s a Black owned fish market not too far from here. You should go check them out. I buy Black whenever I can.”


He told me where it was and I replied that I’d go check it out. Like my friend, I also try to buy Black whenever I can. I had no idea that there was a Black-owned fish market in the community. I made a mental note of the address, bought five pounds of whiting from my normal market and went home.


Yesterday I wanted salmon, wild salmon, not farm raised. I know that my regular fish market has it, but when I thought about my normal place, I remembered that my friend put me on to a Black-owned fish market. I figured that this would be a great opportunity to visit them.
I parked in front of the place. It was clean, almost pristine in appearance. There was a short line outside, because they were only allowing two customers in at a time, masks required. I waited my turn and was beckoned to come inside after a couple minutes. The inside was just as well-manicured as the outside, the woman behind the counter said “Good Afternoon” as soon as I walked in. I looked at their display case, and was immediately disappointed. They were narrow in variety, and the one thing that I came for, the salmon, was priced higher than I expected. The display card didn’t say whether or not the salmon was wild or farm raised, but the price alone was almost twice what I would pay at my normal market. I left. I hopped in my car and drove to the other spot.
But on the way there, I thought about how I just got completely bamboozled. Allow me to tell you how.


Black businesses start off at a disadvantage compared to businesses of other ethnicities. First, start up funding is limited for Black business owners. A study done by Guidant Financial shows that the most popular funding methods of Black business owners was cash and help from family and friends. The problem is that the average household income for Black families is the lowest of all races. Although the optics of a burgeoning Black middle class seem valid, household incomes are still far behind that of other races. That means, even if we’re using cash, we are starting off with less of it than our competitors.


Second, it’s harder for a Black business to get proper financing then it is for any other race. Quite often, even those of us who have dotted all of our I’s and have crossed all of our T’s will still be left with a higher interest rate on any business loans we take out. This means that we can take out the same amount of money as a white business owner, and have to pay back more per month because of the higher interest rate. This means that as a business, our cost of doing business is almost always greater than that of our competitors.


Third, depending on the industry of the business we choose to own, our lack of human experience in that field will ultimately cost us more money than those who have that experience. So, for example, the Korean fish market that I frequent is able to have variety and lower prices because they have family that works in wholesale seafood. The owner told me one time that if I wanted to order some Chilean Sea Bass, I needed to give him a few days notice so that he could have his uncle bring it down to the store for him. I would bet that the Black owned fish market doesn’t have an uncle that owns a wholesale seafood business.
When you combine these three obstacles with the other two dozen that we haven’t discussed, what this leads to is the sobering truth that in order to maintain a Black owned business, Black entrepreneurs sometimes have to charge more for their products, because their cost of doing business is far higher than their competitors. And sometimes that higher cost will result in losing customers who only look at the price tag and never consider the systemic oppression that compels Black businesses to charge more.


And, in that instance when I left their store because their salmon was $27 per pound, I became guilty of that very thing. Bamboozled once again by systemic and inherent racism.
The Black owned fish market was twice as clean as the market I frequent. The workers were twice as polite. And yet because of the price of salmon, I didn’t patronize. I’m ashamed of that, and it reminds me of what Black folk have been saying for generations. In America, a Black person has to be twice as good just to get half as far as a White person. This is what oppression looks like.

What’s Going On

Victoria Horsford
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SUMMERTIME IN AMERICA

Congressman John Robert Lewis, 80, the U.S. Representative from Georgia’s 5th district, since 1987, died on July 17, while battling pancreatic cancer. Lewis was a civil rights leader, a visionary, and a man of great moral authority. His legacy is as a peace warrior and, yet, a fighter for justice. His life’s purpose was laser-focused on equal rights for all.

During his early college days at Fisk University, Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders. He worked to integrate lunch counters throughout the South in places like South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi. And had the battle scars to prove it. He chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1963-1966, which he co-founded in 1960. Throughout his life, he encouraged people to “get into good trouble” like the pursuit of civil rights.
An architect of, and a speaker at, the historic 1963 March on Washington, Lewis, then 23, was one of the “Big Six” leaders of groups who organized the historic event alongside The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He also was an organizer of the March for Black voting rights across the Edmond Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, Spring 1965 where he was beaten and ended up with a fractured skull. A few months later, the US Voting Rights Bill was enacted. Lewis was active in local Atlanta politics until 1986 when he was elected to Congress where he continued his fight for equal rights and justice for all, far beyond his Atlanta constituency.
In 2013, the Roberts Supreme Court cut the muscle out of the Voting Rights Act, allowing 9 states to change their election laws without prior federal approval. In 2019 Congress passed a voting rights bill to restore protections removed by the Supreme Court in 2013. The Bill was sent to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell where it collects dust. But perhaps, not for long. Currently, there are national campaigns to memorialize Lewis’ lifelong work: to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama to the John Lewis Bridge and to pass the Voting Rights Bill and call it by Lewis’ name, as well.

“His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope,” a biography by Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meachum, is set for publication August 25.

COVID19 UPDATES
NYS Homes and Community Renewal commits to $100 million COVID Rent Relief Program for NYS tenants with rent arrears, from April 1 to July 31. This one-time rental subsidy will be paid directly to landlords. There is no tenant repay obligation. Application deadline is July 30. Visit HCR.ny.gov/RRP and check with your NYS assemblyman and senator immediately.

ARTS/CULTURE
TELEVISION: MSNBC’s new highly anticipated prime time show, REIDOUT, hosted by Joy Reid got off to a good start on July 20. The show is 60 Minutes on steroids from a GenX perspective. Reid’s guests were 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton; and embattled newsmakers Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Mayor Bottoms is under attack by Governor Brian Kemp who wants to enjoin her from talks with the press about her COVID19 mask mandate. Georgia is a COVID hotspot. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot, a former Federal prosecutor, says that Trump’s threat to send uninvited Federal law enforcement camouflaged agents, without IDs, in unmarked cars, to her city like he did in Portland, is unconstitutional. She’s ready to fight. The REIDOUT show airs, Monday to Friday, 7-8 pm EDT.

BOOKS: Presidential historian Jon Meachum has written the definitive John Lewis memoir is at the top of our must-read list. It’s due next month.
The Mary Trump tell-all book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” about her infamous Uncle Donald, was published on July 14 and sold more than 950,000 copies that day. The book delves into the most dystopian corners of the Fred Trump household. Clinical psychologist Trump says her uncle cheated to get into UPenn’s Wharton School of Business and that he should get professional psychiatric help to identify his multiple neuroses. She was a guest on the Rachel Maddow MSNBC TV show on 7/16, which pulled in more than a record 5.5 million viewers, besting networks and cable competition.

NEWSMAKERS
Three out of eight nominees for the coveted WTO, World Trade Organization, Director General post are Africans, including Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, an economist and global finance expert, who is former Nigerian Finance Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. A candidate for the World Bank Presidency in 2012, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala is Chairperson of the Board of the Global Alliance of Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

Birthday greetings to Leo lions/lionesses: Leah Abraham, Settepani; Anthony Anderson; Angela Bassett; Rev. AR Bernard, Christian Cultural Center; Halle Berry; Charles Blow, NY Times; NYS Senator Leroy Comrie; fashion baron Dapper Dan; Sarah Dash; Ambassador Alice Dear; Laurence Fishburne; Vivica Fox; Barbara Harris, realtor; Michael Horsford; Victoria Horsford; Amari Jacobs; US Rep. Hakeem Jeffries; Magic Johnson; Martha Jones, designer/visual artist; Vernon Jordan; Woodie King Jr., New Federal Theatre; Lois Knox, NJ Perle Mesta; Debra Lee, BET: Mari Moss, CB10 member; Mona Wyre-Manigo, Antigua Progressive Society President; President Barack Obama; Danny Simmons, theater and fine artist; Wesley Snipes; Yvonne Stafford, real estate entrepreneur/author; Professor Yinka Stanford; Professor Keith Taylor; Marlon Wayans; and Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.

AUGUST OUTINGS
The July 10 WGO column misstated the 2020 HARLEM WEEK celebration, observing its 46th anniversary. Corrected info: HARLEM WEEK 2020 is moving from the streets of Harlem to the virtual world, in the time of COVID-19. HW2020 dates are from August 16 to 23, with the theme, “Movement of the People.” The HW calendar includes: A Great Day in Harlem; A STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Youth Technology Education and Career Conference and Expo; NYC Eco Development Day; NYC Sr. Citizens Day; and Harlem Day. Visit HarlemWeek.com for full events menu.

MARCHES: The NAACP will host a Virtual March on Washington, August 27/28, the 57th Anniversary of the MARCH, which is the day after the GOP Presidential nomination convention. Visit NAACP.org

Last month, Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network announced its plan for a March on Washington, DC on August 28, the 57th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his I HAVE A DREAM speech. The March protests police brutality. The route: Lincoln Circle to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Participating organizations include the NAACP, National Urban League, Legal Defense Fund, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Visit nationalactionnetwork.org to register for event.

A Harlem –based media/branding specialist, Victoria is reachable at Victoria.horsford@gmail.com

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