by Dwight Ott

(NNPA)—The flashbacks to Vietnam for Lorenzo “Jamaica” Banks were coming fast. They were mixing with the horrors of the reality of being back home.

So Banks decided to do something about it.

MCKEESPORT VETERANS PARADE 2007 (Courier Photo/J.L. Martello)

He stepped off the Ben Franklin Bridge.

His near death turned into a resurrection. He ended up getting physical treatment in a nice warm hospital bed along with mental health treatment.

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.

A. PHILLIP RANDOLPH

by Chanelle Bell

For nearly four years the world has restlessly waited for justice to be served for the killing of outspoken Oakland Post Editor Chauncey W. Bailey, a tireless advocate for the Black community.

On June 9, just 2 months shy of four years after Bailey was mercilessly gunned down as he pled for his life, in downtown Oakland, Aug. 2, 2007, while walking to work to meet with Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb, who was also walking to work from the opposite direction to meet with him, the jury released their verdict.

Chauncey W. Bailey

Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, Antoine Mackey, a follower and driver of the car used by the shooter, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with a mistrial on the third murder charge.

(NNPA)—Why did Norman Redlich, Clara Luper, and Paul E. Sullivan act as if the words of the Declaration of Independence about “self-evident truths” and “inalienable rights” were not just rhetoric but had an actual meaning for American society? Why didn’t they leave well enough alone?

Because they knew “well enough” wasn’t good enough.

LEGENDARY ACTIVIST—In this Aug. 9, 1983 photo, Oklahoma Civil Rights Leader Clara Luper poses with one of the many photographs from her scrap books at a North East Oklahoma city Community center in Oklahoma City, Okla. (AP Photo/File)