Blacks Birth New Civil Rights Movement In Paris, Texas!!!

Darren Camper

Texas Editor

Paris, Texas - Shaquanda Cotton, Keyon Mitchell Jr., Teresa King…

Names not known before, but who now represent an opportunity to shine the light on the crimes, sins and injustices against Black people living in Paris, Texas and Lamar County.

Their plights are at the heart of a new modern Civil Rights Movement seeking to emancipate Blacks from the throws of an old Confederate town and its backwards Southern mindset.

Blacks in Paris live under a system that keeps them under the thumbs of White slave masters who still control the government, the education system, the police, the justice system and political and business strongholds.

Those systems have ruled Blacks and intimidated them seeking to keep Jim Crow alive and well in 2007.

Symbolic of the kind of racist mentality that exists is the large Confederate statue that sits on the grounds of the Lamar County Courthouse.

That has sounded alarms from around the state and country among conscious Blacks who want their brothers and sisters free of that control and oppression.

Bryan Muhammad, president of Millions More Movement Fort Worth / Tarrant County, said people of all races need to come together to fight injustice.
“We're asking for all of the citizens of Paris of good will — black, white brown, red, yellow. If you're a person of good will and you are sick and tired of the racist policies of this government, we're calling for the Millions More Movement March,” he said.
Those sentiments drew more than 150 protesters to the Lamar County Courthouse grounds and near the Paris school district administration property to protest and demand freedom for Cotton and show strong support for other blacks being unjustly imprisoned and abused in Paris-Lamar County.
The move by the New Black Panther Party, Millions More Movement members, several pastors and some Paris residents is the first step in a national movement to raise awareness about the injustices in Paris and that is going on in many small Texas counties and towns.

Cotton was convicted in March 2006 of assault on a public servant after she shoved a teacher's aide. Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville sentenced her to spend up to seven years in TYC.
Mitchell Jr., a promising criminal justice major just weeks before his college graduation, was ripped from his campus and given several life sentences on drug charges that were brought by eight felons who bargained with prosecutors to reduce prison time. No evidence, tapes, video surveillance or witnesses ever testified that Mitchell had ever sold drugs or been associated with illegal drug operations.

He was a political leader and activist on campus, worked a job and was supporting a young daughter. He also had tremendous character references to vouch for his character, but neither the lack of evidence nor the face that his references were solid mattered to prosecutors. (See African-American News and Issues archives at www.aframnews.com for more information on the case.)

King’s case involves her being barred from school property just because she expressed concerns as a parent over the treatment of Black children in the school system.

Brenda Cherry, leader of Concerned Citizens for Racial Equality and the Paris/Lamar County Millions More Movement, said it was time to for Black men and women to stand up and send a message that Black activism and the fight for civil rights and freedom is not dead.

“This is only the beginning,” she said. “It is time to send a message that we want the oppression and injustices to stop now and we will not stop until it ends!”

The Call to Free Shaquanda!!!

PARIS- In March of last year, fourteen-year-old Shaquanda Cotton was sentenced to 7 years in prison for shoving a white hall monitor at her Paris, Texas school. The adult monitor says he was not seriously injured.

“A 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.”

Shaquanda is a first time offender. She has no prior arrest record. She did cause no serious injury, but that didn’t matter.

She is a victim of a juvenile justice system out of control in Texas and a corrupt juvenile and education system in Paris Texas and Lamar County that deliberately tees off on Black parents and intimidates activists trying to change the conditions of Black people in Paris-Lamar County.

The tragedy of Shaquanda is that many Black children and parents have been abandoned by sell out Blacks and inactive Black pastors who are doing nothing to demand better for Black children.

Shaquanda has fought being separated from her mother, TYC drug induced treatment and spends her days and nights at Brownwood Prison trying to stay out of reach of the 2,500, murders, robbers, sex offenders and other violent, habitual offenders she is imprisoned with. She has tried to commit suicide to escape her nightmare.

Just three months earlier, the same judge who sentenced Shaquanda sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

"Sometimes I feel like I just can't do this no more--that I can't survive this," Shaquanda says.

Brownwood prison is currently at the center of a state scandal involving a guard who allegedly sexually abused teenage inmates.

Shaquanda does not belong in this environment and must be released and returned home to her mother ASAP!!!

Who will be outraged!!! Who will step forward and demand an end to this abuse?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

Darren Camper

Texas Editor

Fort Worth-What started with a 51-46 loss to Waxahachie last season became a motivation key that sparked the Dunbar High School Lady Wildcats basketball to come back with a vengeance and take a state title.

The Lady Wildcats beat Dickinson 62-51 victory at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

Coming back home with the champions was MVP point Guard LaShandra Hill whose star performance and leadership helped boost team morale and lead the team to victory.

It was the second time in three years, the Dunbar High School Lady Wildcats came home as Class 4A state champions

The Dunbar Lady Wildcats (32-4) also won the 4A title in 2005.

Hill, a senior and headed to play for SMU next season, scored 26 points, added eight rebounds and five steals, and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

Junior Brooklyn Pope’s play also made the difference in the victory by limiting Dickinson's offense and adding a triple double performance with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks.

Wildcats Coach Andrea Robinson said. "Our team played hard and we are very proud of their efforts."

Robinson added the team is still enjoying being back at the top, but will soon begin preparations to defend that title next season.

Congratulations on a job well done...

More Proof!!! Racism Still Exists

Darren Camper

Texas Editor

Every once and a while, an eye opening event pops up in the world of news that sheds light on the state of mind of a community, a state and a people.

A 26-year-old Black male is in the hospital in critical condition after reportedly being dragged by a car after an altercation with another man.

Christopher Wright, a Black male, waited to take home his girlfriend, a White female and a bartender at the hotel bar. According to Hopkins County District Attorney Martin Braddy, Judson Weaver, 24, a White male, allegedly was also at the bar and was told to leave after a verbal confrontation.
The girlfriend acknowledges that she believes that racism was at the center of what happened to her boyfriend.
During her conversation, she said it was common that Black and Whites did not date each other in Sulphur Springs and those relationships create friction with the races.

According to accounts, when she and Wright walked outside, they saw Weaver in his vehicle. That's when Weaver allegedly spit on Wright.
Wright swung back. He got his arm caught in the car and he was drug 40 feet. The guy then began accelerating and the only thing that really knocked Chris loose was when they hit the median."
Wright was dragged some 40 feet down State Highway 30. Wright's father Sigmond said the dragging ripped off his son's nose on the right side of his face and caused multiple facial fractures. He also suffered bruised lungs and a fractured spine.
This brings back painful memories of James Byrd incident in East Texas in 1998.

He was an East Texas black man who was dragged to his death from a pickup truck by three white men in 1998.
This again sends strong sharp, messages from young and old proves that racism is alive and well and the perceptions about Black people have not moved far from the days of slavery or Jim Crow era.

Last month, several African-American female Memorial High School students in Port Arthur performed provocatively dirty dancing on a substitute teacher at the school.

The event was recorded on what appeared to be a cellular phone and ended up on You Tube.com.

Ugly racist’s remarks were posted followed about that incident that referred to Blacks as monkeys, apes and go back to Africa and such. Racism just won’t go away. No in Texas… Not across the South… Not in America.

Texas authorities can use a hate crime enhancement on penalties. The James Byrd Hate Crime Act raises the punishment for crimes motivated by the victim's race, religion, color, sex, disability, sexual preference, age or national origin.

It is the responses to the incident to demonstrate the racist mindset that exists in the community, the Lone Star state and that even remains in many pockets across this country.

The responses to the videos are plain, simple and pull no punches about what many Whites still think about Black people in Port Arthur and Beaumont. It also is a microscopic look into the racist heart, mind and psyche that still exist in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Waxahachie, Athens, Irving, El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo and Corpus Christi and all places in between.

It proves without a doubt that racism still exists and is being passed on in the hearts of some Americans and that is not going to be diminished in America, not even over the next several generations... and you know what I mean.

Is The End Near?

Is Paul Quinn College Doomed?

Darren Camper
Texas Editor

Dallas-Like Bishop College before it, Paul Quinn College may be on its way out.

Last week, former CEO and President Dr. John K. Waddell resigned and left the college. This after one month before in an exclusive interview with AAN&I promoting the college’s positive points and its optimistic future.

His quick and silent departure raises many unanswered questions about his comments on how the college would survive the arrival amidst the $18 million construction of University of North Texas facilities in southern Dallas.

It appears the squeeze is on that promises in the end to suck the life out of Paul Quinn and suffocate years of traditional Black education at the historically Black college.

Sadly, a community of Black leaders and Black citizens surrounding the college seem content to allow Paul Quinn to slide down a slippery slope that will lead to its eventual demise.

AANI posed the question to then President Waddell wondering how the arrival of a new university would impact funding, student enrollment, campus improvements and raised the possibility that the historically Black college could be choked out by the new state institution.

At that time, an upbeat Waddell said. “This is not about competition. We see this as a new education corridor where we will work together and build partnerships …that opens the possibilities for upgrades to our facilities and programs…”

Since his arrival in August 2006, Waddell, his faculty and staff cultivated beneficial relationships with corporate, political and community leaders.

Some of his work included forming strategic alliances with the Boston Consulting Group, Honeywell, the Ketchum Group and the Tom Joyner Foundation, while maintaining its relationships with the United Negro College Fund, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Paul Quinn College National Alumni Association.

However, with the latest ribbon cutting at UNT, one main emphasis is on recruiting students and building the program that will lead to it becoming the first public university in the city of Dallas. Some of those students could be Paul Quinn students.

No where was Paul Quinn mentioned in that UNT plan and neither Dallas State Sen. Royce West nor State Rep. Helen Giddings, State Rep. Terri Hodge, State Rep. Yvonne Davis, State Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway or Dallas Commissioner John Wiley Price have talked about their plans to make sure Paul Quinn is not severely impacted or overshadowed by UNT.

As a matter of fact, it was West who led the push for a public university in southern Dallas County as an educational catalyst and economic booster for the region.

However, in an area where there is a high concentration of African-Americans, the failure to utilize Paul Quinn and allow it to lead the influence and attraction of African-American students appears to be lost in the translation.

Paul Quinn College was founded by a small group of African Methodist Episcopal circuit-riding preachers in Austin, Texas in 1872. The College was later relocated to Waco and established as a modest one-building trade school at Eighth and Mary Streets, where the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway Station now stands. Here, newly freed slaves were taught blacksmithing, carpentry, tanning and other skills.

As A.M.E. districts were developed throughout the South, funds became available for a larger school. Consequently, in 1881 two acres of the Garrison Plantation in East Waco were purchased. Later, twenty more acres were added. To construct the first building, a “Ten Cents a Brick” campaign was launched throughout the A.M.E. congregations, thus, pennies of the desperately poor people built the first solid monument to their dreams

In May 1882, Paul Quinn College, named for Bishop William Paul Quinn, A.M.E. Bishop of the Western States for almost thirty years, was chartered by the State of Texas. Today the College is the oldest liberal arts college for African Americans in the State of Texas.

In 1990, under the leadership of Dr. Warren W. Morgan, Paul Quinn College relocated to Dallas, Texas.

The first semester in its new home began on September 20, 1990, with an enrollment of 1,020 students. Several innovative programs were soon implemented, including a cooperative agreement with the Dallas County Community College District - designed to facilitate easier transition from all seven of the DCCCD 2-year institutions to Paul Quinn College.

Not developing Paul Quinn College and using it as the springboard of Black education in southern Dallas seems not a priority among West and other Black leaders in Dallas.

Waddell had high hopes that Paul Quinn would be that catalyst for Black education, but truly having to compete with UNT and the potential of African-American students from Dallas Community Colleges bypassing the school in favor of UNT may have been too much to overcome for the school.

Maybe Waddell realized that despite all his plans, hopes and dreams of bringing Paul Quinn back, upgraded and mainstream were neutralized by the unwilling groups of Black Dallas elitists that are reaping huge monetary favors and benefits from the UNT push.

It could be that despite promises made to him by business and political interests, Waddell could hear the giant sucking sound of students, funding and support moving away from Paul Quinn to UNT- a fate similar to Bishop College.

In December 1986 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Bishop College's accreditation and membership in the association. Because of this the college lost its right to participate in several government financial programs and access to funds from the United Negro College Fund. In April 1987, Bishop College filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an unsuccessful attempt to restructure its debts and raise money to remain open; it was closed in 1988.

Another possibility for his departure could be that the results of the Boston Report for college were not the optimistic report he anticipated?

Did it show that growth potential suffered competing with UNT? Did it reveal that the growth direction of the college and potential for survival in the coming years was bleak?

For a man with the kind of experiences and successes at educational institutions as he had, AANI watchers are convinced Waddell could see the handwriting on the wall at Paul Quinn College and cast his “educational lots” in another direction.

Nat Turner: A Story That Needs Telling

Time for Day of Remembrance

Darren Camper
Texas Editor

African-American history is filled with many Black heroes who fought for the freedom of our people and who made marks on history with their actions.

While we pause and celebrate non-violence with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we can not make the mistake of allowing White America to select our history, pick our heroes or lull us into thinking that King was the “only one” or the most important Black person to be remembered on a regular basis.

While I am not against MLK Jr., he was not the only one to send a strong message of equality and freedom. He was not the only one that suffered through racism, discrimination and sins of White supremacy.

Nat Turner was a man who lived in slavery and knew its evils first hand.

He too had a dream of someday seeing his people set free from the oppressive hands of White slave masters, but there are no holidays or parades for him.

Turner was born in Southampton, Virginia on 2nd October, 1800, according to information from Spartacus Schoolnet.

He was the son of slaves, and was the property of Benjamin Turner, a prosperous plantation owner.

Turner’s mother and grandmother had been brought to America from Africa and had a deep hatred of slavery. Turner grew up sharing his mother's view of slavery.

He lived in an age where Black had no voice, no freedom, were mostly illiterate and were dependent on the good wishes and care of masser.

His life was not a life fit for man or beast. Black slaves were not considered full men or women by law, but chattel property that could be bought, sold and traded.

Turner was taught to read by his master's son, and during that time he developed deep religious beliefs.

Encouraged by his parents, he gradually began to believe that God had chosen him to lead his people out of slavery.
In 1831 Turner was sold to Joseph Travis. In February of that year, an eclipse of the sun convinced Turner that this was a supernatural sign from God to start an insurrection. However, it wasn't until August 21 that Turner and about seven other slaves killed Travis and his family in their sleep and launched his rebellion. In all, about 50 whites were killed.
Turner had hoped his actions would cause a massive slave uprising, but only 75 joined his rebellion.

Over 3,000 members of the state militia were sent to deal with Turner's rebellion, and they were soon defeated. In retaliation, more than a hundred innocent slaves were killed. Turner went into hiding but was captured six weeks later and was executed November 11, 1831.

Historians have labeled Turner as a crazed maniac, but you could not possibly understand him unless you walked in his shoes, saw what he seen and experience the fears, horrors, exposure to beating and lynching and abuses of slavery.

God works in mysterious ways and I believe God was in both plans. He used Turner as he did MLK Jr. to make respective statements for their times about the injustices imposed on Black people in America.

If Whites were not so evil and selfish during slavery and had treated Blacks with the same respect, dignity and equality, maybe Turner’s rebellion and massacres would never have happened.

Turner is a hero for his using his vision to make a strong case and historic statement against the oppression of Black people or any people.

Even by the time MLK Jr. came on the scene, it was obvious that Whites were still sinful and disobedient to God. They still were mistreating Blacks and had not learned their lesson still refusing to “turn the other cheek” or yield to God’s own word that he is no respecter of persons.

Both represent the broad spectrum of thoughts and philosophies that makes up the psyche of Black America.

Even today, you can’t keep kicking a man or stepping on his neck before he strikes back in some way. Turner was the epitome of what happens when the band breaks.

Payback comes in many forms, from nonviolent means and violent means.

The definition of justice is like to that of beauty – it is defined only in the eyes of those seeking it and does not stop until it works its measure.

In both cases, it demonstrates how movements are born when men are pushed too far and for too long.

Turner had a vision and MLK Jr. had a vision. One was a dream of peace. Another was a vision and a warning that points to the dangers of pushing until you reach spiritual, mental and physical limits. Slavery and oppression undoubtedly created dangerous stress and pressures levels on the soul.

In their own ways, Turner’s Rebellion against oppression evils and MLK Jr. non-violent peaceful approaches to problems have made powerful impacts on the historic fabric of this nation and those contributions must never be forgotten.

The Return of Segregation?

Do School Vouchers Turn Back Clock

Darren Camper

Texas Editor

Austin - The 1896 court ruling in Plessy v Ferguson ushered in an era of “separate but equal” facilities and treatment for blacks and whites. In the area of education, it was felt that the children of former slaves would be better served if they attended their own schools and in their own communities.

The images of schools from the past show that black schools and facilities were indeed separate, but never equal. Black schools suffered and barely survived, while White schools flourished.

In the age of men crying out for school vouchers to send children to private schools, it appears history is setting up to repeat itself again.

Three new proposals in Austin promise seek to change the course of education in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, but the reality of it is it takes away the opportunities that public education provides that helps urban Black children escape lives of poverty, hopelessness underachievement and a lifetime of low wages.

The Louisiana state courts ruled against Plessy, and his subsequent appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court was denied in 1896.

The impact of Plessy of that case was to relegate blacks to second-class citizenship. They were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, churches, cemeteries and school in both Northern and Southern states.

Utah, Ohio, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia are offering publicly funded voucher programs and Texas wants to be the next state to step in that direction.

African-Americans need to beware and think twice before jumping on a bandwagon that puts us in a time machine that sends us spiraling back to the days of segregation and unequal education.

House Bill 1263

It creates a vastly expensive pilot voucher program for educationally disadvantaged students in counties with a population of more than 800,000 people. Those counties include Harris (Houston), Dallas, Tarrant (Fort Worth), Bexar (San Antonio) and Travis (Austin).

Authors of the bill include Reps. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving; Jodi Laubenberg, R-Parker; and Carl Isett, R-Lubbock; Rep. Howard, R-Sugar Land; Rep. Paxton, R-McKinney

District eligibility requirements are so broad that nearly all the school districts in San Antonio, for example, would be pulled into the voucher program. Eligible students would include those who have dropped out of school, are at risk of dropping out, come from low-income families, are victims of certain acts of violence, and are eligible to participate in a district’s special education program or have limited English proficiency.
However the biggest problem is the loss of funding and services to children left behind in poorer urban districts.

Every urban district stands to lose money and that affect the education of Black children who are not accepted or do not and cannot qualify to attend those private schools.

A look at participating school districts in 2005-2010 shows about how much public money could be lost to districts due to vouchers in the first two years:

• Austin ISD could lose: $74 million
• Dallas ISD could lose: $165 million
• Edgewood ISD (San Antonio) could lose: $13 million
• Fort Worth ISD could lose: $79 million
• Houston ISD could lose: $200 million
• North Forest ISD (Houston) could lose: $9 million
• San Antonio ISD could lose: $54 million
• South San Antonio ISD could lose: $9 million

House Bill 12

It would drain money from neighborhood public schools by establishing a private school voucher program in the state’s six largest school districts – Austin, Cypress-Fairbanks, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Northside (San Antonio) Independent School Districts.

The author of HB 12 is Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio.

Some drawbacks associated with this are a voucher program that leaves private and religious schools unaccountable for failure. It also opens the gate for screening, discrimination and does not prohibit or control private and religious schools from discriminating based on factors such as a child’s gender, race, citizenship or limited English proficiency.

Other concerns with the voucher proposal is that it does not require private and religious schools to provide special services to students with disabilities and allows a private school to continue to receive tax funding even if students do not perform satisfactorily on state assessment tests.

House Bill 3042

It opens up private school vouchers to any student in the state who is eligible for public school. It would include 1031 school districts and 215 charter school districts.

Authors of the bill are Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball & Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land.

The bill offers minimum accountability and no consequences for failure.
There are guarantees and absolutely no consequences for poor academic performance, no school accountability ratings, no financial accountability, and no cutoff of state funding for failing private schools.

Vouchers are a controversial proposition to use tax dollars to fund tuition at private and religious schools, according to the Texas Freedom Network.

Black parents need to ask if draining money from neighborhood public schools and taking money away from poor Black children for the privileged and rich is a good idea.

A pilot voucher program targeted at large urban school districts like Houston and Dallas would do nothing to help cash-strapped schools in small towns and rural areas.

Poor Black children stand to lose with Whites clamoring to get more state aid and tax dollars for their private and religious schools.

Many want to remove their children from public schools taking them away from the need to socialize, connect and associate with people from different races, religions and beliefs.

It is a push for racial and religious isolationism that will destroy the delicate fabric that helps stabilize and build communication and understanding between the races. It is a move that shrink the total education dollars available for all public schools.

This stands to be the knockout punch for struggling inner city and urban school districts across Texas since White flight gutted the inner city and took many White children to the suburbia, private and parochial schools.

This legislation brings more money to private and religious schools and allows the screening out, separation and sets up a pattern to leave poor Black children behind. Without the proper tools and funding for education, urban schools will suffer a mass exodus of teachers, facilities and equipment will deteriorate and the children will see a return to the days of hand me down school books, used equipment and hand me down supplies.

Vouchers represent the new “white sheets” worn formerly worn by the Ku Klux Klan. The sheets may be white and clean on the outside, but underneath are the dirty motives and warm blooded spirits of racism that seeks to resurrect the idealisms that separate Black from White, rich from poor, inner city from suburbia and penalize the disadvantaged children for being born poor in America.

It is Black children in Texas major cities that stand to lose the most if the state Legislature and Gov. Rick Perry signs off on school vouchers.

This watcher on the wall aggress that diverting money from schools that serve all children to aid a few students who might be accepted to private schools is simply bad public policy. It is indeed the resurrection of segregation.

Statewide Petition Quest Purposes to Reopen Black School District

New Life?

Darren Camper
Texas Editor

Dallas- Loyalists to the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District have a dream. - that one day the chains and locks will come off their schools and that children will once again move through the hallowed halls of its schools and learn in a hometown classrooms.

It is a far cry from students getting up at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to catch school buses by 6 a.m. for the long trip and numerous stops at a variety of Dallas schools by 9 a.m.

That burdening routine is what has put citizens on a mission to restore the WHISD.

“We are going to the community and appealing to all people in every corner of this state,” said long-time resident Faye Gafford, and spokeswoman for Citizens to Restore Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District. “Watching what is happening to our children just breaks my heart… we demand answers and are in this fight for the long haul.”

Gafford and citizens have launched an all out campaign and are circulating petitions statewide to reopen the schools.

The petition was drafted by attorney Kenneth Thompson with the powerful African-American Atlanta law firm of Molden-Holley, Thompson & Heard, LLC. The prestigious firm has also been retained to represent the group’s cause.

WHISD served a culturally diverse population of 3,200 students in eight schools: one pre-Kindergarten school, four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and one alternative education school. Prior to being merged into the Dallas ISD, its students were 70.4 percent African American, 25.4 percent Hispanic, and 3.9 percent White.

In the petition, citizens are asking all Texas residents to sign and join a move to convince Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick and other Texas lawmakers that the case to reopen the district and its schools has merit and deserves to be heard. It is a case that without challenge has the potential to affect and change how TEA deals with every school district in Texas 254 counties.

CRWHISD hopes the legislature will authorize an unprecedented waiver of sovereign immunity that would allow the community served by the district to pursue justice.

The group believes that WISD was illegally closed and students dispersed to the Dallas ISD for purely political reasons and because a majority of the students and leaders in the district were Black.

The truth is out there and it begins with how WHISD became a victim to false accusations and a vendetta campaign by the Texas Education Agency and Dallas television and newspaper media groups who pressed an agenda to get rid of the all Black run district.

In one small part of the argument for re-opening the district, citizens cite a March 21, 2005 letter sent by TEA Commissioner Shirley J. Neeley to Wilmer-Hutchins officials lowering the district from “academically acceptable” to an “academically unacceptable” rating and in the same letter her move to appoint a board of managers to run the district.

According to the argument, such actions according to Texas Education Code 39.131 (a) (9) are questionable since an accused district must be given “a year or more” to challenge the change in rating before the board of managers are appointed.

“Wilmer-Hutchins was not given that opportunity,” she said. “What happened was illegal because this district was not given its due process.”

CRWHISD also believes that the dissolution of the district was also driven by economics and a vast land grab given talk of the coming transportation corridor and others interest in business and industrial expansion into southern Dallas County.

Another argument for reopening the district is the fact that after the one complaint against the district and numerous cheating and mismanagement investigations, still no charges have been filed against any official that definitively proves any wrongdoing, cheating or justification for shutting down the district and closing its schools.

The closure of schools and district shutdown left the 3,200 students without neighborhood schools, splintered the communities and shattered and destroyed the education will of youth who loved their district, prided their schools and just wanted to attend and complete their education in schools taught by teachers from their communities.

“Parents and children and community served by the former WHISD have suffered an inexcusable injustice,” she added. “We know that there’s no way that Whites in Dallas would allow this to happen to their kids.”

The group also raises questions about other districts, including Dallas ISD, and statewide with numerous problems similar to the WHISD who were not targeted, highlighted, sent board of managers or closed.

“There have been predominantly White schools in this area whose students have done far worse on test scores that our children have,” she said. “They are allowed to continue with their neighborhood school. Why is that?”

Any one can sign the petition as long as you are a Texas resident. You do not have to be a registered voter, Gafford noted, and she is hoping people from Houston, Waco, San Antonio, Austin, Beaumont, Port Arthur, El Paso, Abilene and other communities join the effort to preserve these and other schools in the future who may face hostile takeover, attack and closure like Wilmer-Hutchins did.

“These children need your help now and this community needs its schools,” she said in a passionate appeal. “Right now, many of them have no home and nothing to connect with in this community and far too many are being lost to the streets and the criminal justice system.”

For more information or to get a copy of the petition contact Gafford at 972-225-3713.