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☆ Their Palm Springs Neighborhood Burned More Than 50 Years Ago. They Want Compensation.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | Carlos Jaramillo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Beginning around the 1940s, a neighborhood near downtown Palm Springs became home to mostly Black and Latino residents. The one-square-mile tract was on the land of the Cahuilla Indians and offered one of the few places minorities could live because of racial housing discrimination. After a federal law change in 1959, these residents were evicted and their homes destroyed to make way for economic development. For years, former residents said they were evicted with little or no notice.

Locations: Palm Springs

☆ Paramedic Avoids Prison in Death of Elijah McClain
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | Kelley Manley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Colorado paramedic convicted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young, unarmed Black man, was sentenced to four years of probation with 14 months of work release on Friday, the final chapter of an explosive case that thrust the Denver suburb of Aurora into the national spotlight and helped usher in sweeping public safety reforms. Jeremy Cooper, 49, a former paramedic with Aurora Fire Rescue, was found guilty in December of criminally negligent homicide. A second paramedic, Peter Cichuniec, 51, a former lieutenant with the department, was sentenced last month to five years in prison. Judge Mark Douglas Warner of the District Court in the 17th Judicial District said neither the jury nor the court saw evidence that Mr. Cooper purposely gave Mr. McClain an overdose though his actions deviated from the standard of care. “It’s almost unthinkable the way things rolled out,” he said, later adding, “It didn’t have to happen.”

Persons: Elijah McClain, Jeremy Cooper, Peter Cichuniec, Mark Douglas Warner, Cooper, McClain, “, ” Organizations: Aurora Fire, Judicial Locations: Colorado, Denver, Aurora

☆ Prominent Black Church Leaders Call for End of U.S. Aid to Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | Maya King | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Black churches and other faith groups have pushed for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war for months in advertisements, open letters and social media campaigns. Black faith leaders across denominations have amplified their calls as the number of dead rises. More than 28,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to health officials there, many of them women and children. But the A.M.E. council’s statement goes further than a cease-fire demand, insisting that the United States immediately stop its financial support of Israel. It came as Israeli forces pushed into southern Gaza and prepared for a ground assault on Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are trapped.

Persons: Bishop Stafford J Organizations: African Methodist Episcopal Church, church’s, of Bishops Locations: United States, Israel, Gaza, Rafah

Bill Murphy, an 80-year-old retired veterinarian in suburban Phoenix, sometimes blanks on names he could once summon with ease, so he has empathy for 81-year-old President Biden. But he winced when he watched Mr. Biden defend his mental sharpness at a news conference, only to mix up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico. Mr. Murphy, a Republican, believes Mr. Biden is not up to another term. “I look at him as a peer,” said Ms. Meyer, who plans to vote for Mr. Biden. The special counsel report cleared him of criminal charges in his handling of classified documents but described him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Persons: Bill Murphy, Biden, Murphy, Mr, Mary Meyer, forgetful, ”, Meyer, “ Organizations: Republican Locations: Phoenix, Egypt, Mexico

☆ Criminal Trial of Paramedics Opens in the Death of Elijah McClain
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | Kelley Manley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The NewsThe third and final trial over the death of Elijah McClain opened Wednesday in a Colorado courtroom, where jurors will be asked to decide whether two paramedics who responded to the deadly police encounter can be held criminally responsible for what happened to him. Mr. McClain, a young, unarmed Black man, died in 2019, six days after a violent struggle with police officers in Aurora, Colo. Three officers have already been prosecuted over his death; one was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault and the other two were acquitted. The final trial is a rare instance of medical personnel being prosecuted for their roles in a police-custody death. The two paramedics being tried together are charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and several counts of assault.

Persons: Elijah McClain, . McClain Locations: Colorado, Aurora, Colo

☆ Nearing Her 109th Birthday, and Still Waiting for Her Day in Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For more than a century, Lessie Benningfield Randle, one of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, has lived with the searing details of that spring. For decades, she has recalled the fire that ravaged her neighborhood, Greenwood, and the frantic trip with her grandmother to the safety of a fairground. Ms. Randle’s 109th birthday is Friday. I would like to see this all cleared up and we go down the right road,” Ms. Randle said in an interview from her Tulsa residence. “But I do not know if I will ever see that.”

Persons: Lessie Benningfield Randle, Randle’s, Greenwood, Randle, United States ’, Viola Fletcher, Ms, ” Organizations: United, City, “ Locations: Tulsa, Greenwood, United States

☆ Second Police Officer Acquitted in Elijah McClain Death
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | Kelley Manley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A second Colorado police officer has been acquitted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young, unarmed Black man whose case attracted national attention and became central to debates about police brutality and race. Mr. McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was approached by Mr. Woodyard after a 911 caller described him as “sketchy.” Mr. Woodyard quickly put his hands on Mr. McClain without explaining the reason for the stop, according to state prosecutors. Within minutes, he placed Mr. McClain in a neck restraint, known as a carotid hold, briefly rendering him unconscious. Paramedics then injected Mr. McClain with ketamine, a powerful sedative. The verdict follows a recent split decision by another Colorado jury in an earlier trial involving officers in the same encounter.

Persons: Elijah McClain, Black, Nathan Woodyard, McClain, . McClain, Woodyard, Mr Organizations: Colorado, Paramedics Locations: Aurora, Colo, Colorado

☆ First Trial in the Death of Elijah McClain Expected to Start This Week
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Why It MattersMr. McClain’s death in August 2019 drew new scrutiny after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis nine months later. The May 2020 killing of Mr. Floyd, videotaped by a bystander, ignited a national movement around police brutality and racial injustice. Mr. McClain’s death was quickly linked with the deaths of Mr. Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by the Louisville police in a botched no-knock raid. In addition, the death of Mr. McClain set in motion multiple investigations into the Aurora Police Department resulting in a state consent decree as well as local reform efforts. At the time the police stopped Mr. McClain, he was wearing a dark mask (his mother said he had anemia which could make him cold) and waving his arms.

Persons: McClain’s, George Floyd, Floyd, Breonna Taylor, McClain Organizations: Louisville police, Aurora Police Department Locations: Minneapolis

☆ The Trials of Aurora: A Colorado City’s Deep Divide Over Policing
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

I asked him if he thought good policing was possible. “The policing problem is that you have 90 percent good police officers, but that 10 percent or 5 percent, whatever the scientific number is, is enough to taint it. “There have been so many questionable incidents with the police involving Black residents,” Mayes said. Like Black voters across the country who have indicated support for fair policing in national polls, they took pains to explain that they were not against policing itself. “It’s just really hurtful,” Fields told a local radio station when the news broke.

Persons: ” Mayes, ‘, Mayes, —, “, ” Rhonda Fields, ”, Fields, Matthew Green, McClain, “ It’s, ” Fields, you’re Organizations: City Council, Aurora, Colorado’s, Aurora Police Department Locations: Vietnam, Black, America, Aurora

☆ One Black Family, One Affirmative Action Ruling, and Lots of Thoughts
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the Whiteheads, an African American family living in the city of Baltimore, race is discussed at the dinner table. In the car on the way to work and school and games. In the backyard while the sons practice sports. So when the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities, effectively ending the practice known as affirmative action, the family began talking about it earnestly, echoing the range of emotions felt by people across the country who are invested in the ruling. He is hopeful that it is no longer needed, but fears it is.

Persons: Karsonya Wise Whitehead, ”, Johnnie Whitehead Locations: African, Baltimore

☆ A New Front in Reparations: Seeking the Return of Lost Family Land
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For much of their lives, the Jones siblings had passed by a parking lot on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville without giving it much thought. Then one day, a relative casually pointed to the spot and said she thought it was once owned by their ancestors, who had farmed the land since the 1870s. The Joneses want it back. “For our family and others, it’s not just about the taking of the land, it’s about the taking of our ability to build wealth,” said Michael Jones, 63, the youngest of five brothers and sisters. African American families across the country — particularly in the South — are pushing for the return of land they say was taken in government seizures, an emerging attempt to provide economic restoration for the long saga of Black land loss and deprived inheritances.

Persons: Jones, it’s, ”, Michael Jones Organizations: University of Alabama Locations: Huntsville

☆ Texas Lawmakers Pass Ban on D.E.I. Programs at State Universities
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Audra D. S. Burch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The News: Just a day before the Texas legislative session ended, state lawmakers approved a ban on offices and programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion at publicly funded colleges and universities. On Sunday, both chambers approved Senate Bill 17, which was sponsored by Brandon Creighton, a Republican state senator. “The days of political oaths, compelled speech, and racial profiling in university hiring are behind us,” Mr. Creighton said in statement. Democratic leaders, college educators and students warned that the bans could have wide repercussions including on the ability to attract and retain students from diverse backgrounds and on the chances of winning research and programming grants. The Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors said in a statement that the bill sends a clear message to the 1.3 million public university and community college students, “that our state is not committed to welcoming students from all backgrounds and to building a public higher education system that is truly inclusive and supportive of all.”

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