10A March 4-10, 2010 Jackson Advocate Jackson, Mississippi

NAACP BLACK HISTORY MONTH AWARDS PROGRAM

The Jackson Branch NAACP held its annual Black History Month awards program
Feb. 27 at St. Luther M.B. Church, 1040 Banks Street in Jackson. Besides recogniz-
ing community advocates for “Embracing the Past; Preparing for the Next Decade,”
attendees were treated to a panel discussion on issues of importance to the commu-
nity. This year’s honorees were: businesspersons Socrates Garrett, B.T. Jones,
Duane O’Neil and Gailya Porter; attorneys Fred Banks, Reuben Anderson, John
Maxey and Constance Slaughter-Harvey; religious leaders Jerry Young, Charles Polk,
Carolyn Tyler-Guidry and Valerie Cohen. Congratulating awardees who attended the
event (Garrett, Porter, Banks and Polk) were Jackson Branch NAACP president Gus
McCoy, treasurer Charles Britton, member Wayne McDaniels, Jackson-Hinds Youth
Chapter NAACP member Gavin Hughes, and Beth and Steve Orlinsky, representing
Beth Israel congregation. (Photo: Kathy Sykes)

HBCU
federally-sponsored programs
and opportunities for the na-
tion’s HBCUs. It will also
contribute to the Administra-
tion’s efforts to increase the
number and percentage of
college-trained Americans by
the year 2020.
Obama
kidney failure, diabetes,
stroke and high pretension,
the First Lady said. Years
ago, she added, it was un-
common to hear of American
youths suffering from kidney
failure and diabetes.
These health problems are
preventable. We need to start
making better eating choices
In part, Obama’s Executive
Order states, “Historically
black colleges and universi-
ties have made historic and
ongoing contributions to the
general welfare and prosper-
ity of our country. Through
this Initiative, the Board shall
advise the President and the
Secretary on all matters per-
taining to strengthening the
and raising a healthy younger
generation. When we learn
good eating habits we will
carry it on throughout our
life, she said. The important
goal of the “Let’s Move” ini-
tiative is to end the epidemic
of obesity within one genera-
tion.
The First Lady then asked
the students of Brinkley Mid-
dle School to help her and be-
come a part of the “Let’s
educational capacity of
HBCUs. In particular, the
Board shall advise the Presi-
dent and the Secretary on im-
proving the identity,
visibility, and distinctive ca-
pabilities and overall compet-
itiveness of HBCUs;
engaging the philanthropic,
business, government, mili-
tary, homeland-security, and
Move” campaign. She ad-
vised them to choose healthy
snacks. That snack should be
an apple instead of a candy
bar and bag of chips, she said.
She advised the students to
become more active, start
moving around, to get up and
take a walk, or to ride a bike
to school. Don’t spend all of
your time sitting and playing
video games or talking on the
phone, she said.
education communities in a
national dialogue regarding
new HBCU programs and ini-
tiatives; improving the ability
of HBCUs to remain fiscally
secure, to include public-pri-
vate investments in HBCUs;
and elevating the public
awareness of HBCUs.”
Hampton University Presi-
dent, Dr. William R. Harvey,
“The President and I love
to play the dance revolution
with our daughters,” said
Mrs. Obama. “Ask your par-
ents to join in and do the
electric slide with you. That
will get you moving.”
Then the First Lady, the
mother of two, also gave
some motherly advice, en-
couraging the students to start
a community garden. Learn-
ing to grow your own vegeta-
is Obama’s choice for chair-
man. Other educators slated
to serve on the prestigious
board are: Dr. Lawrence S.
Bacow, President, Tufts Uni-
versity; Evelynn M. Ham-
monds, Dean, Harvard
University; Dr. Edward
Lewis, Co-Founder, Essence;
Valerie Mosley, Senior Vice
President, Wellington Man-
bles and the simple art of gar-
dening are good ways of en-
couraging children to eat
fresh fruits and vegetables,
she said.
Recent federal legislation
was passed to reduce the aver-
age caloric intake of school
lunches from 900 calories to a
smaller amount, while also of-
fering more fiber and whole-
grain food products.
Before ending her visit to
agement Group; Willie Pear-
son Jr., Professor of Sociol-
ogy, Georgia Institute;
Beverly Daniel Tatum, Presi-
dent, Spelman College; Ken-
neth Tolson, Executive Senior
Vice President/CEO, Emerg-
ing Technology Consortium;
and Dr. David Wilson, Presi-
dent, Morgan State Univer-
sity.
Jackson, Mrs. Obama dis-
cussed efforts to combat
childhood obesity with local
school officials and state ex-
perts in health and nutrition.
She was delighted to an-
nounce that the Jackson Pub-
lic School System had
removed the deep-fat fryers
from their cafeterias and had
replaced French-fried potatoes
with oven-baked chicken,
fresh fruits and vegetables.

Rally
him to push the governor to
release Jamie and Gladys
Scott. Mrs. Evelyn Rasco, the
mother of the two sisters, did
not attend the rally but sent
reports that she had met the
commissioner at a hearing in-
side the Capitol the previous
week. Epps assured her then
that her daughter would get
adequate care and that he
would look into any problems
she might have.
Thursday’s rally was also
the catalyst for mobilizing
dedicated activists far beyond
the Mississippi state line, with
many of them promising to
spread the word about the
Scott sisters to every major city
and state.
The support network already
extends into Pennsylvania,
where the directors of the Mil-
lion Women’s March are plan-
ning more protest action and
are taking legal steps to get
clemency or a pardon for the
Scott sisters. Broadcasts over
the New York-based Empow-
erment Hour Online University
on BlogTalk Radio have also
brought worldwide attention to
the Scott sisters via the Inter-
net.
The earliest information
about the Scott sisters was
published by two women
based in Memphis and on the
Atlantic Coast. They actually
began the crusade last year
that caught the attention of
media outlets in Mississippi.
Nancy Lockhart and Nattyreb
made effective use of the In-
ternet and standard media to
get the Scott family message
out.
While New York’s Rev. Al
Sharpton has not announced
his involvement with the Scott
Sisters’ case, his brother the
Rev. Kenny Glasgow of
Dothan, Alabama, said Tues-
day that he would present the
Scott Sisters’ case to Sharpton
and his National Action Net-
work.
Bishop Henry Williams, an
Oakland, California-based
minister who over the years
has developed plans for a fol-
low-up to the 1963 March on
Washington for reparations,
was traveling with Sharpton’s
brother in Alabama in prepa-
ration for Sunday’s memorial
march across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge, the critical spot
in Selma where Martin Luther
King launched his decisive
push for black voting rights
in1965. Williams said that he
and Glasgow would try to get
the Scott Sisters’ case on the
agenda at Sunday’s march.
The burning issue that has
rallied more and more people
across the country to the Scott
sisters cause is the plight of
Jamie Scott, 38, who was not
given proper medical atten-
tion after both her kidneys
failed in December. Her sister
Gladys, who once shared the
same cell with Jamie, offered
to donate one of her kidneys
to save Jamie’s life. But
prison authorities blocked the
offered transplant. Jamie
Scott since then has suffered
through several botched ef-
forts at putting her on a dialy-
sis machine. But even the
prison medical authorities
have described the effort as
totally inadequate and a threat
to her life.
Mrs. Rasco, who now lives
in Pensacola, Florida, rushed
to the prison the previous
weekend and was able to see
the inside of the prison med-
ical clinic where Jamie was
kept during her dialysis. She
was allowed inside the clinic
because her daughter was too
weak to walk to the visiting
room, she said. Once inside
the temporary quarters, Mrs.
Rasco said she felt the condi-
tions there could only harm
her daughter.
“The place was so filthy,
with dirt and trash thrown
everywhere, so that when I
saw how they were treating
my daughter, I just cried,”
said Mrs. Rasco. “It seems to
me that they want to torture
my daughter.”
Many other human rights
activists have also been fo-
cusing international attention
on the sisters, ranging from
Cuba to South Africa and
England.
Jamie and Gladys Scott
lived in Scott County, MS, at
the time they were sentenced
to double-life sentences after
being convicted in October
1994 of staging the robbery of
two men. The three adoles-
cents who committed the rob-
bery and implicated the
sisters in it under threat from
local authorities, later re-
canted their stories, saying the
Scott sisters had nothing to do
with their action. Money to-
taling about $11 reportedly is
the amount that was taken by
the robbers.
Calls to the commissioner’s
office Monday were inter-
cepted by the communica-
tions director for the
Mississippi Department of
Corrections. Suzanne Single-
tary, the spokeswoman for
Epps, said Monday that no
one from the department
could comment on a specific
inmate’s condition. Concern-
ing a prisoner’s release for
medical reasons, she said, the
general rule is that a prisoner
must be unable to fend for
herself. Neither the prison
doctor nor the doctor oversee-
ing the kidney medication
feels that Jamie Scott is in
such condition.
Several organizations have
designated March 5 as “the
Day of Action for Jamie and
Gladys Scott,” calling for a
massive letter campaign di-
rected toward Gov. Barbour
and Commissioner Epps.
March 26 is the announced
rally date at various locations
under the direction of Em-
press Chi, the founder-execu-
tive director of the Million
Woman March.

Budget
prisoner than it does per stu-
dent. Unlike students who
leave at the end of the school
day and return to homes and
meals paid for by their fami-
lies, prisoners remain in our fa-
cilities, in most cases, 24 hours
a day, 385 days a year, for
months or years at a time.”
The state has to pay for all
prisoner needs as well as the
cost of staffing and running the
prison system. Costs per in-
mate rise 3.8 percent each year,
Epps says. Student cost in-
creases have grown 6.8 percent
annually, he added.
“Mississippi spends less per
prisoner than any other state in
America,” Epps says
The controversy ended Tues-
day with a final budget agree-
ment to add $82 million taken
from state reserve funds for ed-
ucation, MDOC and other de-
partments. The governor would
be allowed to restore $16 mil-
lion to the prison budget and
the schools would get the $36
million contained in the prior
legislation.
Barbour’s office announced
Tuesday that the governor was
willing to allow the new
funding arrangement to go
through.

“We are looking forward to Center at 9 p.m. on Friday,

Alphas
the 2010 convention is “Devel-
oping Leaders Dedicated to
Making a Difference.” The
Mississippi Alpha Network is
serving as host.
“It is an honor to have the op-
portunity to host this year’s
Alpha South convention in
Jackson,” said Kelsey Rushing,
Esq., Director of the
Mississippi Alpha Network.
hosting our regional brothers
and strengthening our great fra-
ternity.”
The weekend should prove
an exciting event as well as ed-
ucational for members. The
four day event includes work-
shops, meetings and public pro-
grams that will showcase the
fraternity’s uniqueness. Among
the public events are a Step
Show at Jackson State Univer-
sity’s Athletics and Assembly
March 5; the Belford V. Law-
son, Esq. Oratorical Luncheon,
12 noon at the Jackson Con-
vention Complex on Saturday,
Mar. 6; and the Miss Black and
Gold pageant at 9 p.m. Satur-
day at the convention head-
quarters, the Marriot Hotel.
Admission for both events is
$10.
For more information, con-
tact Christian Patterson at 601-
201-5463.