by Tony Best

A bid to secure a posthumous presidential pardon for Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jamaica’s first national hero, has been rejected out of hand by the Barack Obama White House in Washington.

But the administration’s rejection is unlikely to end the campaign in and out of the United States, Jamaica and elsewhere to clear the name of the iconic figure.

MARCUS GARVEY

Garvey, who led the greatest mass movement of Blacks in the United States in the first half of the 20th century and is often credited by historians and other experts with promoting the economic, social and political interests of the ordinary Black person as no other had been able to do for more than half a century, had a following that ran into the millions in the Western Hemisphere.

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.

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.