#WhiteTerror #BlackPain #SayTheirNames #CarolRoberston #DeniseMcNair #CynthiaWesely #AddieMaeCollins

Denise McNair, Carol Robinson, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley Resting in Heavenly Peace

Again, the reason I oppose the republican party has nothing to do with me being a democrat, and I don't oppose republicans just to support democrats. I oppose republicans because the people who perpetrated the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings and other terrorist acts joined the GOP.

Does this sound familiar?

Back in 1966, after an election in which, having won voting rights after the
1965 Selma to Montgomery March, in which I lost two dear friend, Rev Jim
Reeb and Viola Liuzzo, blacks rushed to register to vote and to run for office, most considered themselves to be Democrats . Gov Wallace (a democrat) refused to allow them to run for office as Democrats. To combat the continuing absolute racism of the Alabama Democratic Party, some of us created another Democratic Party, the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), went through a difficult struggle, and elected the first blacks to office in Alabama as Democrats! But the ADP fought as a fully segregated party for almost 10 years as the NDPA came to hold over 100 elected offices,more than any other state!!! Then and only then did the ADP want us, and we forgivingly moved into the ADP. But of course its leadership remained fully racist and we have been struggling to change that ever since. But racists continued to run for and hold office as Democrats. It never fully changed. That makes it clear why people are still very suspicious of attitudes in the ADP.

Prior to the the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Nixons' Southern Strategy, these people were loyal democrats, then the Democratic Party split along sectional lines in the aftermath and the republicans reached out to the disaffected Southern Democrats, encouraging them to join the GOP. The party did not change the Dixiecrats, the Dixiecrats changed the party.

When Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 voting Rights Act, he said “there goes the Democratic Party in the South.” How right he was."What ever political party draws it's strength from these people is the party I'm going to work to defeat. " 

Are you with us, or are you with them?

That is the question.

The Day after the #SOTU and the Repubs are mad now....#IWonTwice

Does Boener have to look like he's getting a colonoscopy everytime Obama says something good about America? I thought Repubs loved America?
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) January 21, 2015

President Obama didn't call out the republicans (and some democrats) to my satisfaction, but he did  throw some major shade  with a drop the microphone moment  that has republicans begging for cheese to go with their whine. 

Republicans tried to get snarky with President Obama during the State Of The Union, but were quickly shot down by an off the cuff presidential reply. After the exchange, conservative media cowered and whined about the president’s “rudeness.”

They can dish out the rudeness but they can't take it, and I suspect rudeness  is code for Uppity, but I digress. Obama isn't the first democratic President to throw shade at republicans, but he's the first African American President, and that's what makes them mad.

So how are they going to get Obama for daring get Uppity  I mean rude to them?  Well, first it was the Voting Rights Act now the republican controlled Supreme Court's Poised To Make It Easier To Deny Someone A Home Because They are Black. 

 For four years, civil rights advocates have struggled to keep the Supreme Court from eliminating a key prong of federal fair housing law. This year, their luck is probably going to run out. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, a case that could leave many victims of housing discrimination unable to win their case in court. Based on the justices’ unusual eagerness to hear the issue presented by Inclusive Communities, their decision is likely to end badly for civil rights.

Let's be clear, republicans showed us who/what they really are last night.

They don't want your child(ren) to have access to a quality public education.

They don't want anyone to have access to quality, affordable health care.

They want to build more new prisons than new schools.

They want to recruit our sons and daughters to fight wars based on dead wrong intelligence.

They are against Fair Housing.
 
They are against poor women (not to be confused with rich women) having access to a safe legal abortion.

They are against equal pay for women, heck they against fair pay for period.

They hate us for our freedom.  I thought I would throw that one in for flavor.

This is the party the media enabled to take control of the House and the Senate.

I HOPE they are happy.

Is Huntsville City Schools violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1965? Is the City of Huntsville enabling them?

Photo North Huntsville Environmental Concerns

Let's recap:

For the sake of giving North Huntsville a new school, the federal judge in the desegregation dispute said new school construction could continue, but does she know the school district is risking the health of the next generation by locating the new schools less than half a mile from an active rock quarry without conducting a health risk assessment?

The city of Huntsville is standing by their assertion the air is "safe to breathe" at the location of the new, illegally named, Mae Jemison High School, but to the best of my knowledge, they are basing this on one test, conducted on one day, in the early morning hours, when there was no activity at the rock quarry.

If I repeat, If, the DOJ approved the building of the new North Huntsville high school based on this one test, I not only have a problem with the BOE and the City of Huntsville, I have a problem with our government.

Title VI and Environmental Justice at EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)

In July 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (PDF) (13 pp, 23K, About PDF) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act states that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
In February 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations." In a separate memorandum, President Clinton identified Title VI as one of several federal laws already in existence that can help "to prevent minority communities and low-income communities from being subject to disproportionately high and adverse environmental effects."

The Civil Rights Act at 50 protects people of color and the environment too.

There are still people who think that social justice and environmental issues are totally separate things, but as I’ve argued before, they’re not — and the Civil Rights Act is a case in point. The climate justice and environment worlds have benefited much from this law, particularly Title VI, which protects people of color from discrimination in any program or activity that receives federal funding.

Now is the time for all good guys and gals to step forward.

Huntsville, Ala (WAAY) - The drama continues over Vulcan Materials opening a rock quarry off Highway 72 near the town of Gurley. One group which staunchly opposed to the quarry, traveled to Montgomery last week in the hopes of stopping it. When the East Huntsville Madison County Civic Association went to Montgomery they met with several legislators hoping to get House bill 230 through committee. The bill would stop rock quarries from operating within five miles of a school, but it has not yet made it out of committee.
Group members say health is their number one concern because of the dust produced by the blasting. North Madison county elementary and Madison county high are within 2 miles of the location
"The health of the 900 kids and the elderly in that area--that was the primary reason," said Bill Binkley of the trip to Montgomery.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge"

"For the sake of giving our community a new school"

"We were fighting for the right to breathe back then."   I'm not sure who made this statement, or where I read it, but I believe the late civil rights icon Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth used these words to describe the conditions during the civil rights movement as it related to the treatment, or should I say mistreatment, of African Americans. If I am wrong someone please correct me. Over 50 years later we are still fighting for the right to breathe, the difference is now we are fighting for the right to breathe clean air.

Like so many other things, pollution and environmental destruction disproportionately affect both people of color and the economically disadvantaged. This phenomenon is often referred to as environmental injustice and ties together the concepts of racial/economic privilege with unequal burden of the effects of environmental abuse.
Environmental racism is "the process whereby environmental decisions, actions, and policies result in racial discrimination or the creation of racial advantages."

None dare call it environmental racism, but that is exactly what is happening with the relocation of the new Mae Jemison High, other public schools, and parks in close proximity to an active rock quarry.  What started out as a fight to save the name of J.O.Johnson High School  turned into a fight for the rights of students, administrators, teachers, and support personnel in north Huntsville to breathe relatively clean air.

Why would anyone want to build school(s) and a recreational park near an active rock quarry?  That is the question.

Would those with the power to make these decisions want their loved ones attending/working in a school built less than a mile from an active rock quarry?  I think not.

The city of Huntsville is standing by the school districts assertion the air is "safe to breathe" at the location of the new, illegally named Mae Jemison High School, but to the best of my knowledge they are basing this on one test conducted on one day, in the early morning hours when there was no activity at the rock quarry.

If, I repeat, If, the DOJ approved the building of the new north Huntsville high school based on this one test, I not only have a problem with the BOE and the City of Huntsville, I have a problem with our  government.

In July 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (PDF) (13 pp, 23K, About PDF) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act states that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
In February 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations." In a separate memorandum, President Clinton identified Title VI as one of several federal laws already in existence that can help "to prevent minority communities and low-income communities from being subject to disproportionately high and adverse environmental effects."

 The only reason a new school is being built in north Huntsville is because is because south Huntsville wanted a new school. What south Huntsville wants, south Huntsville gets. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge south Huntsville getting a new school and keeping their name, I just don't believe it should be at the expense of the lives of north Huntsville residents.