By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – When officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey State Police called a press conference to name Assata Shakur, a 65-year-old-Black women and political refugee living in Cuba, to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List, the move left many political activists puzzled.

Shakur is the first woman named to the list that also includes leaders of jihadist groups that have been linked to global terror plots. And she was added to the list 40 years after the crime.

Also known as Joanne Chesimard, Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party and later the Black Liberation Army, an organization that called for the revolutionary change in race relations in the United States and believed that armed conflict was the appropriate tool for that change.

Shakur was charged and convicted in the 1973 “execution-style” murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster on the New Jersey State Turnpike during a traffic stop. Medical and forensic evidence disproved the prosecution’s assertions that Shakur fired the fatal shots that killed Foerster or any shots at all.

Another trooper at the scene later admitted fabricating the story he told of seeing Shakur, fire shots from the passenger side of the vehicle, but she was still found guilty of murder. In New Jersey, being an accomplice to a murder is equivalent to actually pulling the trigger and carries the same life sentence.

During that period of turmoil, Shakur was cleared or judges dismissed the case against her in a half dozen trials and indictments against her ranging from armed robbery and kidnapping to murder. An all-White jury found her guilty of murder and assault during the trial for the murder of the New Jersey State trooper.

In a bold action, three-armed men helped Shakur escape Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in November 1979. Although the group took prison guards as hostages, none were injured. Five years later, Shakur reappeared in Cuba where she has lived since her escape.

On the anniversary of Trooper Foerster’s death this year, Aaron Ford, special agent in charge of the Newark Division, called Shakur a “domestic terrorist. That same day, the reward for her capture and return to the U.S. was doubled, from $1 million to $2 million.

“Justice has no expiration date, and our resolve to capture Joanne Chesimard does not diminish with the passage of time. Instead, it grows ever stronger with the knowledge that this killer continues to live free,” said Attorney General Chiesa.

According to news accounts, FBI officials said that neither President Obama nor Attorney General Holder had anything to do with adding Shakur to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List, although they likely knew of the decision.

Recently, demonstrations were held in more than a half-dozen cities in support of Shakur. In addition, Change.org has launched a petition drive objecting to Shakur being added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist’s List.

The petition to President Obama states, “This new decree, announced some 40 years after initial her arrest, gives open license and motivation for Cuban residents or anyone else to abduct Ms. Shakur and deliver her to Federal authorities to answer for crimes she did not commit. In effect, Ms. Shakur committed no crimes. The crimes in fact were committed against her.”

During an interview with “Democracy Now,” shortly after the FBI’s announcement, Angela Davis, a political activist and professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said that it was a major shock to hear that Assata Shakur was named to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists.

“Really, it seems to me that this act incorporates or reflects the very logic of terrorism. I can’t help but think that it’s designed to frighten people who are involved in struggles today,” Davis said.

Lennox Hinds, criminal justice professor at Rutgers University and a member of the team of lawyers representing Shakur during the New Jersey State Trooper murder trial, said that the move was politically motivated and that placing her on terrorists list was misguided.

“We have to look at it in the context of what has just happened in Boston. I think that with the massacre that occurred there, the FBI and the state police are attempting to inflame the public opinion to characterize her as a terrorist, because the acts that she was convicted of has nothing to do with terrorism,” said Hinds during an interview with Democracy Now. “The acts that she was convicted of, if you look at the evidence, she was convicted of aiding and abetting, and therefore was present during the shootout.”

Davis called the continued pursuit of Shakur a “vendetta.” Davis added: “To represent her as a person who continues to be a threat to the U.S. government in the way that is described is, it seems to me, an effort to strike fear in the hearts of young people who would be active in the struggles that are represented historically by Assata and struggles that continue today.”

Since Shakur’s escape, the United States government and the New Jersey State Police have made efforts to push Cuban officials to return Shakur, but the two countries don’t have an extradition treaty, requiring Cuban officials to do so. Congress passed a non-binding resolution in 1998 urging Cuban officials to return Shakur and about 90 other fugitives that were believed to be living in the island country. In 1997, the New Jersey State Police wrote to Pope John Paul II urging him to talk to Fidel Castro about returning Shakur to the United States during the pontiff’s visit to Cuba.

In 1998, Shakur penned her own letter to Pope John Paul II, saying: “I have advocated and I still advocate revolutionary changes in the structure and in the principles that govern the United States. I advocate self-determination for my people and for all oppressed inside the United States. I advocate an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism, and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty.”

By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – When Mecala Holmes was a freshman at Howard University in 2008, she recalls seeing a t-shirt in the school’s book store that read “Howard University, the best four or five years of your life.”

Holmes recalled, “I saw that and thought ‘I’m not going to be here for five years. And then I finished my freshman year and I thought ‘I’m about to finish in five years.”

Holmes, a computer engineering major, decided to take 12 credits every semester to better balance her challenging curriculum with the social opportunities Howard had to offer—from events, to social and service organizations such as Jewels, Inc. a mentoring program she was an active member of throughout college.

Twelve credits per semester, however, wouldn’t help her accrue the 126 she needed to graduate within four years.

Although Holmes had realized she wouldn’t be graduating with the class, watching her friends and peers prepare for their long-awaited commencement without her was emotional for her.

“Last year, I cried on graduation day,” Holmes said. “But if I had graduated last year I wouldn’t have the opportunities I have now. Looking back, I wouldn’t have done it differently.”

Holmes graduated from Howard’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Science this month, a year after the expected graduation date set when she entered the school in 2008.

In September, Holmes will begin her career in an entry-level role at IBM in Virginia, a job she says she probably wouldn’t have gotten had she finished school in 2012.

She says although graduating in four years is a realistic goal for most students, it isn’t everyone’s reality.

“It’s realistic, but you have to have a certain mindset,” Holmes said. “Your priority has to be school.”

For many Black students at HBCUs, however, regardless of their mindset, graduating in four years just isn’t their reality.

According to a report on HBCUs by a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, titled “The Changing Face of Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” HBCUs have a 30 percent graduation rate, with about 32 percent of students at private 4-year institutions graduating within six years, along with 29 percent at public schools.

Howard has one of the highest graduation rates among HBCUs, with 39 percent of the class of 2011 graduating within four years. The schools 6-year graduation rate is 62 percent, five points higher than the national average.

Howard University Provost Wayne Frederick says getting students to graduate in four years is very important.

“From the University’s point of view, it’s important for us because we exist for the purpose of arming the nation’s youth with the tools they need to change society,” Frederick said. “To get them well educated and well-trained in the most efficient manner possible.”

Although Frederick says the curriculum the university has designed ensures students have the ability to matriculate in the “best possible fashion,” he also understands there are other considerations.

“The biggest obstacle for students is finances,” Frederick said. “College education is expensive, we really have to look at what the price of school is and how students are funding [their education].”

At colleges across the country, specifically HBCUs where 33 percent of students depend on Parent PLUS loans for school, changes to federal grant and loan requirements can have a large impact on their degree attainment.

At Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, almost 1,000 students left the school last fall, many as a result of failing to meet altered requirements for the Parent PLUS loan.

Though many of these cases have been appealed, including nearly 600 students who lost and later regained financial aid at Howard, the cost of college remains a hindrance to graduation of the disproportionately low-income students who attend Black colleges.

According to “The Changing Face of Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” the majority of students who attend HBCUs are “low-income, first-generation, and Pell-Grant eligible.” The report adds, “students with these characteristics are less likely to graduate no matter where they attend college,” noting that even predominately white institutions with student bodies with similar characteristics have comparable graduation rates.

However, as the country quickly becomes more diverse, HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions could play a vital role in President Obama’s goal of achieving high levels of college completion by 2020.

HBCUs currently enroll about 16 percent of Black college students, according to a report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

For people like Dominique Raymond, the vice president of alliance state relations at Complete College America, a non-profit based in Indiana focused on closing the degree-attainment gap among Americans, however, enrolling students is not enough.

“We’ve done a great job with the access agenda,” says Raymond. “When you look at those attending college, it looks a lot like America—there’s a diverse population. But when those who complete college end up being traditional students, meaning those who are full time, and completion among minority groups isn’t persisting.”

According to Raymond, time is the major “enemy to completion” for students is time—the longer it takes for students to complete school, the less likely they are to graduate at all.

Obtaining a college degree has become increasingly important to the wealth and employability of the population. According to the Department of Education, people with a college degree made twice the annual income of those with a high school diploma or equivalent.

The wealth gap between those with and without degrees is only projected to increase over time.

“You earn more, when you learn more,” said Raymond. “Economic success of individuals comes from education.”

While college graduation is important, the amount of time it takes to complete school is not a point of concern for many students.

Travan Hurst, a 2013 graduate of Howard University, who like Holmes got to the school in 2008, says once you take into account the environmental stresses of college, graduating in five years is a more stress-free option, specifically for students in STEM and science programs.

“For students in science and engineering it’s less stressful to stay for five years,” said Hurst, a graduate of the College of Allied Health at Howard University. “It’s more conducive to your progress as a student to take your time.”

Special to the NNPA from The Chicago Citizen

(NNPA) Chicago has a very serious crime problem made evident by innocent victims, including children, toddlers and infants, who lose their lives to gun violence seemingly every week. Residents are constantly demanding a decrease in Chicago’s violence, a change that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Mayor Rahm Emanuel must strategically plan every day.

However, Kyle Coplen, founder of Armed Citizen Project (ACP), is vowing to “help” local citizens combat the violence in Chicago. But his plans are non-traditional and controversial…he plans to give away free shotguns.

Coplen, fortified by his non-profit organization, ACP, is planning a tour of several cities across the country where he will supply citizens with free with shotguns so they can feel safe within their own homes. The National Rifle Association (NRA) member from Texas has included Chicago in on his “gun handout” route.

According to the ACP website, the organization is choosing mid-high crime neighborhoods in cities across America, and offering defensive weapons to citizens that can pass a background check, and who will take safety, legal, and tactical training.

“We’re not trying to solve [Chicago’s] gun crimes, we’re empowering citizens in their own homes,” Coplen told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper. “That’s all there is to it. [We’re doing this for] folks who want to feel safe in their own homes, folks who want to be able to defend their life, liberty and property if confronted with a threat, we’re helping those people.”

ACP plans to arrive in Chicago within the next four to eight weeks at which time they will be able to disclose what neighborhoods they will target. In addition, Coplen insists that the ACP was contacted by people around the country who requested their help.

“We’re training an army of folks so it won’t be a one day event; any city that we expand into we are going to be in that city indefinitely,” Coplen stated.

“These folks have come to us; these are people that have stated that they want the help. We’re not forcing anyone to go through our training courses and to acquire a weapon; these people want the tools to protect their life, liberty and property.”

The shotguns Coplen plans to handout are new and have been donated from a variety of private sources. One pump action shotguns will be administered to potential recipients after they complete ACP’s tactical and safety training class. Only residents who have lived in the targeted neighborhoods for at least one year will be allowed to participate in the program. Shotguns were selected as the weapon of choice because of their low cost, small learning curve and effectiveness in deterring potential intruders.

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper asked Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy for his opinion on Coplen’s plans. His response clearly indicated that he is not a fan of more guns coming into Chicago.

“The answer to the problem of illegal guns is not more guns. We need stronger laws to keep illegal guns from getting to our streets in the first place and provide stronger penalties for the criminals who carry illegal guns,” McCarthy said. “We will continue to work together with the community, residents, clergy and local organizations to protect the public and keep illegal firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals.”

Mayor Emanuel’s office was contacted for comment on the planned gun giveaway, but did not return the Chicago Citizen Newspaper’s telephone calls before press time.

Tio Hardiman, executive director of Cease Fire, an anti-violence program and initiative of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention aimed at reducing street violence, said Coplen’s plan is unsolicited and problematic.

“Speaking on behalf of Cease Fire, we’re unsure of his overall goal or purpose,” Hardiman said. “Nobody reached out to him to ask for his help. We’re about changing minds. People need help as opposed to arming themselves.

Hardiman referenced a recent victim of Chicago’s gun violence who was an innocent bystander.

“Even if Hadiya Pendleton and the other (young victims) had guns, it’s not like they would have had a gun on them at the time they were shot,” Hardiman said making his point and calling Coplen’s plan, ludicrous, a sentiment he said a lot of other people agree with.

“Peace is the only thing that needs to be given away for free,” he said.

Hardiman also stated that he felt Coplen is trying to promote his business and wonders if he really cares about the people he wants to arm with guns.

Other community activists are against ACP’s plan including a prominent member of Chicago’s clergy.

The outspoken Rev. Michael L. Pfleger of Saint Sabina Church told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper, “It’s absolutely insulting and it makes me angry. If they care about what’s going in Chicago why don’t they offer to come do some afterschool programs, keep some schools open, do something that’s going to make a transformation?” Rev. Pfleger added, “Dr. King taught us that violence does not end violence.”

However, Coplen believes that his Chicago critics as well as his other critics are off the mark with their assessment of what he and his organization are trying to accomplish.

“Many people have asked me if I am concerned about the potential liability that I may incur from this project. The short answer is no,” Coplen says in an open statement on ACP’s website.

“We will follow every applicable law, and weapons will only go to those that qualify. We are a very litigious society, and I refuse to be bullied into inaction. Even if, heaven-forbid, one of our weapons is misused in a manner causing injury or death, one would have to accept the premise that guns, not people, cause crime, in order to find us liable. I will not play into the hands of the anti-gun establishment. The future belongs to the bold, we must fight.”

ACP is currently registering to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit. For more information about the Armed Citizen Project visit www.armedcitizenproject.org.

By Diane Xavier
Special to the NNPA from The Dallas Examiner

Members of the New Black Panther Party of Dallas held a rally last week to support Assata Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, a fugitive who is on the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted terrorist list.

Shakur was convicted of killing a state trooper 40 years ago in New Jersey, but escaped from prison and has been living in political asylum in Cuba since 1984.

Recently, the FBI placed her on the list of most wanted terrorists and doubled the reward for her capture and return to $2 million. She is the first woman to be named on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list.

On Friday, several leaders and supporters of the New Black Panther Party protested in front of the Earle Cabell Federal Courts Building in downtown Dallas during the afternoon to show their displeasure with the United States government and how it labels Shakur as a terrorist even though there wasn’t enough evidence to link Shakur to the crime in New Jersey against state trooper Werner Foerster in 1973.

Protesters shouted, “Hands off Assata Shakur and power to the people.”

Brother Darrin X, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, said the purpose of the organization he is involved with is to fight for human rights.

“It’s about the struggle and liberation of our people from the racist United States government,” he said. “Assata Shakur is one of the founding members of our party. The struggle that Assata has gone through, we also share with her. So we are here to let her know that we support her efforts then and we support her efforts this time in history. We are also here to let our government know from their taxpaying citizens that we do not agree with the decision they made to put a bounty of $2 million on her.”

Darrin said it is ridiculous to call Shakur a terrorist and insists that she is innocent of the accusations.

“To put her on a terrorist list when she hasn’t killed anybody, she hasn’t blown up any buildings, and she hasn’t hurt anybody, just doesn’t make sense,” he said, then stated that Shakur is free in Cuba. “We look to the revolutionaries in Cuba to protect our dear sister Assata.”

Lovell X, another member of the group, said there is so much racism in the United States.

“The White man is hard to get along with, even in peace,” Lovell said. “He is not going to be fair, he is not going to be just, he is going to be unjust and take everything he can and kill everybody he can. We are in wars right now that we shouldn’t even be in.”

Olinka Green, Minister of Political Education for the party, reiterated to the crowd that Shakur did not shoot the police officer, as she has been accused. He also said there is a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to law enforcement in this country.

“Every day in this country, Black men are shot down by police officers and they walk,” Green said. She went on to call Shakur a freedom fighter. “Assata Shakur is us. She is one of our elders and founders. This little Black woman made changes because she saw how America was oppressing Black people and she decided to do something about it. With her struggle and strength, we have to support this sister because it is not just for the Black people but for all people.”

Green also said Shakur needs all the protection she can get.

“We can’t let America get their hands on her because if that happens, then that is saying that everything that happened in the 1960s, 1950s and 1940s regarding civil rights in this country is nothing,” Green said. “She is who we are and we are her. The police targeted her because she was part of the most massive, strong movements that the government had ever seen and they had to pinpoint somebody and what the government is upset about is that Assata got away. Everybody else has either been killed or locked up.”