Week of Sept. 17-23

September 17

1787—The United States Constitution is approved but it includes three clauses allowing for the continuation of slavery even though it was suppose to be a document of freedom.

1861—Hampton Institute (now university) is founded. It has now become one of the nation’s leading predominately Black educational institutions.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

1973—Illinois becomes the first state to honor Civil Rights Movement icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a state holiday.

La Salle University student and Pittsburgh resident Delvin Turner was selected for the Summer Program at Harvard Law School.

In the sixth grade, Turner listened intently as his class studied Thurgood Marshall and his struggle to assist African-Americans gain access to equal educational opportunities. “I was inspired by the fact he used law as a vehicle for change to help those who had been neglected by the legal system,” said Turner, a graduate of Central Catholic High School.

DELVIN TURNER

When Turner told his mother he wanted to be a lawyer, she took him to the Allegheny County Court House to watch the attorneys argue their cases. “Lawyers, it seemed to me, were intelligent people and sharp communicators who could challenge injustices and work to bring about meaningful change,” said Turner. Turner, a senior at La Salle University in Philadelphia, spent five weeks at Harvard University’s Law School with the Trials Program, which prepares students for the LSAT exam and offers lectures by prominent attorneys. He was one of 20 students selected to attend the program.

by Beth Fouhey

NEW YORK (AP)—President John F. Kennedy openly scorned the notion of Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeding him in office, according to a book of newly released interviews with his widow, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

She said her husband and his brother then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, a longtime LBJ antagonist, even discussed ways to prevent Johnson from winning the Democratic nomination in a future contest.

JACKIE AND CAROLINE—In this Dec. 6, 1963 photo, Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter, six-year-old Caroline, arrive at their new home in the Georgetown section of Washington two weeks after her husband was slain in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Bob Schutz, file)

The book, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy,” includes a series of interviews the former first lady gave to historian and former Kennedy aide Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. shortly after her husband was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Over seven sessions, she recalled conversations on topics ranging from her husband’s reading habits to the botched Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba.

by Cyril Josh Barker

NEW YORK (NNPA)—Labor Day weekend, millions of Americans hit the highways to get to their weekend vacation destinations.  However, the lack of a simple task is killing Blacks on the roads at an alarming rate.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the No. 1 leading cause of unintentional injury death for all African-Americans is motor vehicle crashes. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for African-Americans ages 1 to 14. Of those killed while passengers in a vehicle, 52 percent of Black children were not restrained at the time of the crash.

Though wearing a seat belt is the best way to avoid injury, Blacks are still failing to buckle up. The problems have become so severe that it has been declared a public health crisis.