NEW YORK (NNPA)—After returning from a recent trip from the Gulf Coast region, Rev. Jesse Jackson called on British Petro­leum to do more to help Black fishermen affected by the enormous oil spill currently consuming the region, during an address to the Black newspaper publishers June 18.

REV. JESSE JACKSON

“So long as British Petroleum is in charge of the information flow about damages done and in control of who is able to be a claimant, they control both bookends of the situation,” Jackson said during a speech at the National Newspaper Publishers Association‘s annual convention in New York.

NEW YORK (NNPA)—Black civil rights leaders are furious that they will not be able to organize a march to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the historic March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famed “I Have A Dream” speech at the location where it happened this year because infamous right-wing Fox News personality and radio host Glenn Beck already booked the Lincoln Memorial Aug. 28 to hold his own rally.

MARC MORIAL

“We’re going to get together because we are not going to let Glenn Beck own the symbolism of Aug. 28, 2010,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said during a breakfast at the NNPA’s 70th anniversary celebration at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers June 18. “Someone said to me, ‘Maybe we should just let him have it. I was like, Brother, where have you been? Where is your courage? Where is your sense of outrage?’ We need to collaborate and bring together all people of goodwill, on Aug. 28 to send a message that Glenn Beck’s vision of America is not our vision of America.”

Week of June 25-July 1

June 25

1773—Massachusetts slaves petition for their freedom. As a result of the petition a bill ending slavery in the state was actually drawn up and passed by the legislature. But the governor refused to sign it and there were not enough votes to override his veto.

1941—President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order #8802 banning racial discrimination in the nation’s war industries on the eve of America’s involvement in World War II. The order came as a result of pressure from Black labor leader A. Phillip Randolph who had threatened a massive “March on Washington” to protest discrimination by the military and the military industry.

(Afro.com)—Controversy has arisen in South Carolina as Alvin M. Greene, an unemployed veteran facing felony charges, has won the state’s Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
Greene’s win was improbable, as he’s never given a campaign speech, doesn’t have a website, has no campaign signs and only has $114 in his campaign bank account. Yet, more than 100,000 South Carolinians voted for him.

As a result of his unlikely victory over four-term state legislator Vic Rawl, Greene will face incumbent Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in November.

SENATE CANDIDATE—Alvin M. Greene, South Carolina’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, poses for a photo in Manning, S.C., June 9.