(NNPA)—The NAACP issued a statement March 24 responding to criticism from Black newspaper publishers about being excluded from the marketing campaign for its televised Image Awards.

Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the organization, said in the statement that the newspaper inserts for the Image Awards were produced and distributed by an outside firm which acquired a license to do so. The NAACP, he said, was told that Black papers would be included, but none ultimately were included in the distribution.

BENJAMIN JEALOUS

by Hope Yen
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)—According to data released March 24, African-Americans in search of wider spaces increasingly left big cities such as Detroit, Chicago and New York for the suburbs, typically in the South. Both Michigan and Illinois had their first declines in the Black population since statehood as many of their residents opted for warmer climates in the suburbs of places such as Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.

Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade, exceeding estimates in most states as they crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or 1 in 6 Americans.

NO EASY ANSWERS— Detroit Mayor Dave Bing answers questions from reporters during a news conference about the census count March 22, in Detroit. Hammered by the auto industry's slump, Detroit saw its population plummet 25 percent over the past decade. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Clarence Tabb Jr.)

Week of April 2 to April 8

April 2

1855—John Mercer Langston becomes the first African-American elected to public office when he wins the position of clerk of Brownhelm Township in Ohio. Though not well known today, Langston was one of the foremost Black leaders of the 1800s. With the aid of his two brothers, he organized anti-slavery societies throughout Ohio. The Oberlin College graduate also became a lawyer and statesman for Black rights. After the Civil War, he organized the law department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The town of Langston, Okla., is named in his honor. He died in 1897.

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON

by Bob Johnson

ABBEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Nearly 70 years after Recy Taylor was raped by a gang of White men, leaders of the rural southeast Alabama community where it happened apologized Monday, acknowledging that her attackers escaped prosecution because of racism and an investigation bungled by police.

GOOD FIRST STEP—Recy Taylor, now 91, is seen her home in Winter Haven, Fla. Black and White leaders from a rural southeast Alabama community apologized March 21, to relatives of Taylor, who was raped in 1944 by a gang of White men. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

“It is apparent that the system failed you in 1944,” Henry County probate judge and commission chairwoman JoAnn Smith told several of Taylor’s relatives at a news conference at the county courthouse.

Taylor, 91, lives in Florida and did not attend the news conference. Family members said she was in poor health and was not up to traveling to Abbeville or speaking with reporters. But her 74-year-old brother Robert Corbitt, who still lives in town, was front and center and said he would relay the apology to his sister.