Black community urged to stand against discrimination
Chapter President Ron Fails called a press conference Tuesday to address the most recent incident of alleged discrimination. He called Raymond Spears, a retired member of the Black community and a veteran of the U.S. armed services, to the podium.
Spears told of an incident he recently experienced at a Speedway gas station in Elida. Spears said he was declined service by a young, white woman for no apparent reason.
"She said I was being rude and told me I was not getting gas at the station. She told me to get off the property or she would call the police," Spears said. "And I knew I hadn't done anything wrong."
So Spears called the police himself. Officers from the Elida Police Department and the Allen County Sheriff's Office responded to the scene, "and they couldn't have been more respectful to me," he said.
Spears then reached out to the NAACP and Fails, who in turn reached out to the gas station's district corporate office.
"We filed a discrimination notice and let them know what happened," Fails said. "We felt it was better to expose the situation than to just walk away."
Two previous incidents of racial discrimination were addressed by Fails. In one instance, a Black female pastor who had been subjected to racial taunts took her complaints to Lima City Council. In another incident at a gas station at the intersection of Pine and Kibby streets, a Black customer who was subjected to verbal abuse opted for a different response and became physical with the station employee. Criminal charges resulted.
Fails said that type of reaction is not the way he hopes the Black community will handle racial discrimination. In the Elida case, he said Speedway has been asked to adopt mandatory diversity training for its employees, "and if the corporation does not respond we may be forced to boycott Speedway stations."
While violence is never the answer, the NAACP president said, neither is simply giving up.
"Walking away is something we (Blacks) have done all our lives. If we continue to walk away, will our kids have to walk away as well? Walking away is never the answer," Fails said. "This behavior (exhibited at a few local businesses) is unacceptable. If we don't stand together, we participate in the disrespect of all of us."
Featured Local Savings
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
NAACP launches town halls to mobilize Black voters ahead of 2026 midterm elections
The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, is kicking off a series of town halls this week in an effort to mobilize Black voters around the country more than a year ahead of the 2026 midterms. "It may still seem far away, but the 2026 midterm elections will determine whether our democracy still holds on or whether the people surrender their power to a king," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement to CBS News. "So, from our perspective, as the NAACP, it's clear: we've got to start organizing early." Johnson called this "an urgent moment," referring to President Trump's rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion policies and immigration raids, as well as the swath of budget cuts slashing Medicaid and food assistance programs as "attacks on democracy." The town halls will focus on the administration's policies and their impact on the African-African community. "We've got to strengthen community, recruit volunteers, inform each other about Donald Trump's oppressive policies, and map out local strategies that will ensure everybody gets out to vote," Johnson said. "Our neighbors are being illegally kidnapped by ICE, Trump's budget is taking away our healthcare and access to food stamps, and our civil rights are being stripped away at every turn—all while costs, from housing to groceries, continue to rise, and the billionaire class get richer." The first event will be held Tuesday in New Jersey and will feature Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Rep. LaMonica McIver and other local leaders. In May, the Justice Department filed felony charges against McIver for allegedly assaulting a federal law enforcement officer during a clash earlier this month between protesters and police outside of a Newark ICE detention center. She pleaded not guilty. Baraka was charged with one count of misdemeanor trespassing at the same protest, but the charge was later dropped. In addition to addressing national and community issues, the forums are also aimed at boosting civic engagement through volunteer and voter recruitment, grassroots organizing and door-to-door outreach. "As we build toward the 2026 midterm election, our campaign will focus on connecting past liberation struggles to the urgent demands of the present," said Wisdom Cole, NAACP's Senior National Director of Advocacy. NAACP invested $20 million during the 2024 presidential election to get out the vote, mobilizing over 14.5 million Black voters. While African Americans overwhelmingly backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 contest, President Trump earned an increasing share of Black vote, particularly among Black men. According to CBS News exit polls, Mr. Trump received 21% support among Black males and in some in states, like North Carolina, he more than doubled his support from 2020. Mr. Trump also made gains among Latino voters. The town halls come amid an increasingly intense battle over redistricting. Texas state Democrats recently fled the state to protest a new congressional map that could increase the number of GOP seats. Local civil rights groups, including the NAACP, have argued it could dilute minority voting power. California is also considering redrawing its congressional districts to counter Texas, if it succeeds. The NAACP is planning additional town halls in Texas and California in the coming months, and also other states such as North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, New York and Maryland.
Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Six decades after the Watts riots, too little has changed
On Aug. 11, 1965, 60 years ago, I stood transfixed with hundreds of others on the corner several blocks from my house in South L.A. watching what seemed like a horrid page out of 'Dante's Inferno.' But this was real life. Liquor stores, a laundromat and two dry cleaners blazed away. There was an ear-splitting din from the crowd's shouts, curses and jeers at the police cars that sped by crammed with cops in full battle gear, shotguns flailing out of their cars. There was an almost carnival air of euphoria among the roving throngs as packs of young and not-so-young people darted into the stores snatching and grabbing anything that wasn't nailed down. Their arms bulged with liquor bottles and cigarette cartons. I was 18 and felt a childlike mix of awe and fascination watching this. For a moment there was even the temptation to make my own dash into one of the burning stores. But that quickly passed. One of my friends kept repeating with his face contorted with anger: 'Maybe now they'll see how rotten they treat us.' In that bitter moment, he said what countless other Black people felt as the flames and the smoke swirled. The events of those days and his words remain burned in my memory on the 60th anniversary of the Watts riots. I still think of the streets down which we were shooed by the police and the National Guard during those hellish days. They're impossible to forget for another reason. Exactly six decades later, some of those streets look as if time has stood still. They are dotted with the same fast-food restaurants, beauty shops, liquor stores and mom-and-pop grocery stores. The main street near the block I lived on then is just as unkempt, pothole-ridden and trash littered now as it ever was. All the homes and stores in the area are hermetically sealed with iron bars, security gates and burglar alarms. In taking a hard look at what has changed in Watts — and all of America's neighborhoods like Watts — since the riots, the picture is not flattering. According to Data USA, Watts still has the runaway highest poverty rate in L.A. County. Nearly one-third of the households are far below the official poverty level. It has the highest jobless rate. It is still plagued by the same paucity of retail stores, healthcare services, chronically low educational test scores and high dropout rates. The near-frozen conditions in Watts were hideously punctuated in the lengthy battle that residents and advocacy groups waged last year against city agencies to clean up the contaminated water that posed huge safety and health hazards to thousands. It's a battle that's still being fought. In some ways, what I see in Watts now is worse than what I remember before the riots. Despite the grinding poverty among many in Watts six decades ago, nearly all the residents had shelter. The sight of people sleeping on the streets, at bus stops and in the park was practically unimaginable in Watts in 1965. That is not the case today. Homelessness, as in other parts of South Los Angeles, is a major problem. However, this is only one benchmark of how little progress has been made since the riots in confronting racial ills and poverty in a still grossly underserved Watts. Many Black people in the six decades since the riots have long since escaped such neighborhoods. Their lives, like mine, are now lived far from the corner in South L.A. where I once stood amid the flames and chaos. Their flight was made possible by the avalanche of civil rights and voting rights laws, state and local bars against discrimination, and affirmative action programs that for many of them crumbled the nation's historic racial barriers. The parade of top Black appointed and elected officials, including one former president, the legions of black mega millionaire CEOs, athletes and entertainers are evidence of that. However, that does not alter the hard reality that a new generation of Black people now languishes on corners like the one I stood on in August 1965. For them there has been no escape. But it's not all doom and gloom. There are advocacy groups such as Watts Rising that press L.A. city and county officials for greater funding initiatives and programs in every area of life, including housing, jobs and income boosting programs, along with huge investment in improved healthcare services. One other memorable moment for me during those hellfire days was when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Watts at the height of the riots. He was jeered by a few Black residents when he tried to calm the situation. But King did not just deliver a message of peace and nonviolence; he also deplored police abuse and the poverty in Watts. Sixty years later, he would almost certainly have the same message if he came to South L.A. or any of America's other similar neighborhoods. Too little has changed. Too much has gotten worse. What I see in those communities 60 years after the Watts riots remains stark and troubling proof of that. Earl Ofari Hutchinson's latest book is 'Day 1 The Trump Reign.' His commentaries can be found at
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Attorney says heart device did not shock Tennessee man in execution who said he was 'hurting so bad'
TENNESSEE-EJECUCIÓN NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who said he was 'hurting so bad' during his lethal injection this week for the 1980s killings of his girlfriend and her two young daughters was not shocked by his implanted defibrillator, his attorney said Friday. Kelley Henry, the federal public defender for Byron Black, said her team received an initial evaluation of the data from his implantable cardioverter defibrillator. The ICD information eliminates one possible cause for Black's comment about pain during his execution Tuesday, and other actions such as when he picked his head up off the gurney and groaned, she said. But many questions remain unanswered, she said. 'Make no mistake, we all saw with our own eyes that the pentobarbital did not work like the State's expert testified that it would," Henry said in her statement, referencing Tennessee's execution drug, pentobarbital. "Mr. Black suffered.' Black was executed after a back-and-forth in court over whether officials would need to disable his ICD due to claims it might cause unnecessary, painful shocks to try to fix his heartbeat as the drugs were administered, potentially prolonging the execution. An autopsy report is expected to be released in eight to 12 weeks, Henry said. She also said their team will be making public records requests to try to piece together what happened. She has said this includes access to Black's electrocardiograph readings from the execution. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Friday that news of the lack of a defibrillator shock was 'just as the state's medical expert predicted and entirely contrary to the confident predictions of Black's expert.' Skrmetti cited Black's numerous failed legal challenges and said, 'Byron Black's execution was entirely legal.' 'Every American has the right to their own opinion about the death penalty, but courts rely on actual facts and actual law, not on theatrics and passion,' Skrmetti said in a statement. Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya Clay, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6. Prosecutors said he was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting Clay's estranged husband. Black died at 10:43 a.m. on Tuesday, prison officials said. It was about 10 minutes after the execution started and Black talked about being in pain. Ahead of that, when he was asked for any last words, he replied, 'No sir.' Black looked around the room as the execution began, lifting his head off the gurney multiple times, and could be heard sighing and breathing heavily. All seven media witnesses to the execution agreed he appeared to be in discomfort. 'Oh, it's hurting so bad,' Black said, as he lay with his hands and chest restrained to the gurney, a sheet covering up past his lower half, and an IV line in his right arm visible to media witnesses. 'I'm so sorry. Just listen to my voice,' responded his spiritual adviser in the death chamber. In mid-July, a trial court judge agreed with Black's attorneys and ordered officials to have the defibrillator deactivated. But Tennessee's Supreme Court overturned that decision last Thursday, saying the other judge lacked authority to order the change. The state disputed that the lethal injection would cause Black's defibrillator to shock him and said he wouldn't feel them regardless. Before the execution, the state said in a court filing that a "lethal dose of pentobarbital ensures that Black will not be conscious to experience any pain." The state said unconsciousness occurs within 20 to 30 seconds of administering the drug, followed by respiratory arrest and cardiovascular collapse. Black, 69, was in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions, his attorneys have said. They said he had an intellectual disability that should have protected him from execution, but was denied a new hearing because he had already been rejected under older standards. The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center and Black's attorneys said it's unaware of any other cases with similar claims to Black's about ICDs or pacemakers. Black's attorneys said they haven't found a comparable case, either. Henry also said officials struggled to insert an IV into his left side, and ultimately did after using some medical device, presumably to find a usable vein, Henry said. They seemed to have no trouble getting an IV into Black's right side, she said. That process is not viewed by media witnesses, whose perspective begins when Black is already strapped in and hooked up to IV lines on the gurney.
