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!”