Neighbor collect
In drug ca e
SAN FRANCISCo-A judge
ruled that an apartment build
ing owner in a poverty-strick
en section of town infested
with drug dealers must pay as
much as $5,000 to each of 75
neighbors.
The neighbors brought the
suit charging the 36-unit
apartment building had be
come a public nui ance.
The entrance locks and no
trespassing signs installed by
the landlord were not enough,
the judge 'ruled. The landlord
should h ve hired a re ident
manager and installed high-.
security fences for the build
ing whichs rents to poor
people under a federally sub
sidized program.
scream.
MICHIGAN
CITIZEN
Publlah d each
Sund yby
New Day Enterprise
12541 Second Street
P.O. Box 03560
Highland Park, MI 48203
(313) 869-0033
FAX. (313) 869-0430
BENTON HARBOR
BUREAU.
175 Main Street
B nton Harbor, M149022 .
(616) 927-1527
FAX. (313) 927-2023
Publlaher:
charles D. Kelly
Editor:
Teresa Kelly
Managing Editor:
Wanda F. Roquemore
Office Aaalatant:
Catherine R. Kelly
Contrlbutora:
Bernice Brown
Salama Gordon
Mary Golliday
Allison Jones
Flodean Riggs
Leah Samuel
Ron Seigel
Carolyn Warfield
Vera White
Production Manager:
Kascene Barks
Production:
Kai Andrich'
Anita lroha
Account executive:
Earlene Tolliver .
Marketing Executlv .:
AMnClemons
Nehru Johnson
, I
.,
I
w
truggle of eliminating raci m, il
literacy nd exism. I w nted to ee
if th Y were j t urviving or wor -
ing on developing new goal for their
people. And, to ee if they h d con
tinued in advancing their ociety
politically, ocially, economically
and spiritually. And they h d!
MY VI IT PROVED to be a
repeat of my first trip. I aw children
o ,Iw imp ed
by th May Day Parad I w ore
million Cubans p rade down the
treet with igns that po e to their
pride nd dedication. There were
contingen of thousands of wor ers
nd military personnel on bicycles. I
could feel the strength of the Cuban
people.
And when the people aw Fidel,
they began shouting "Fidel- Fidel!
Men, women and children were
jumping up and down shouting Fidel
- Fidel. One man brought his dog
to the parade and pick him up 0 hi
dog could ee and wave to Fidel.
/
m oft
People were so passionate and
emotional. This passion for Fidel
• really bucks what you hear from the
American pre s.
WHAT I AW DURI G Y
visit would help anyone to under
stand that what we ee and h ar from
Afrikan Holocaust Memorial and
and Reperation Conference slated
The National Coalition of Blacks
for Reparations in. America
(N'COBRA) is sponsoring its annual
National Holocaust Memorial and
Reparations Conference, June 19-21,
in Charleston, SC.
In addi tion to the ecumenical
Holocaust observance, the con
ference will include a hi torical tour,
workshops, an Afrikan/ReggaelRap
Concert, and intergenerational relay.
THE HOLOCAU T Memorial
is held in rememberance of the
Afrikans/Blacks murdered in the
Middle Passage, being brought to the
Americas for enslavement. The
Afrikan Holocaust was the sys
. ternatic, intentional, and industrial
ized murder of Black Children,
women and men of all ages.
TOWARD CLAIMING and
understanding our history and our
entitlement to reparations, ctivitie
will begin with a tour ofhi torie ite
with emphasis on importation,
en lavernent, and resistance. The
tour will be followed by working
group on trategies to win repara
tions, with a luncheon keynoted by
Aminifu Harvey, "From Conscious
ness to Successful Action."
N'COBRA IS A coalition of in
dividuals and organizations com
mitted to fighting for reparations,
compensation and payment due to
Black people in North "America for
enslavement as well as other human
rights violations since its abolition.
N'COBRA is headquartered in
Washington, D.C. and Co-chaired by
Vincent Godwin and Adjoa
Aiyetoro. The mailing address is
P.O. Box 62622, Washington, D.C.
20029-2622,202-635-6272.
Move member released from prison.
By TED DUNCOMBE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The
woman who survived the police
bombing of the headquarters of the
back-to-nature group MOVE left
prison in a limousine recently, seven
years after the deadly attack that
destroyed a neighborhood.
Ramona Africa, 37, was released
from the State Correctional institu
tion at Muncy. Africa, who refused
-parole for 5 1(1. years because offi
cials wanted her to renounce the
group as a condition, vowed to seek
freedom for other MOVE members.
"RAMONA IS NOT the issue,"
she said on a radio talk show after
returning to Philadelphia. "Ramona
is one person, one member of this
organization. We are an organization
that is committed to bringing our
family out of prison."
About a dozen MOVE members
remain behind bars, most for a 1978
confrontation that left a Philadelphia
police officer dead. At an afternoon
news conference, Africa said the
group soon would reveal documents
that prove their innocence.
"All MOVE has ever asked for,
all we are asking for now, is one
serious, in-depth, honest investiga
tion into what we are saying about
our family,'" she told a news con
ference. About 60 people attended
an evening memorial service, spon
sored by a group called the Lessons
from the MOVE Tragedy Commit
tee.
"THERE CAN BE no peace
until there is justice," aid the Rev.
Roscoe Cooper Jr., pastor of the 5th
Street Baptist Church of Richmond,
Va.
Members of MOVE, which isn't
an acronym, championed back-to
nature rituals, refused to send their
children to school and openly dis
obeyed health and safety laws. All
took the surname Africa, after the
group's founder, John Africa.
Complaints by neighbors about
noise and unsanitary conditions led
police to try to evict the group on
HAil MOVE has
ever asked for,
all we are asking
for now, is one
serious,
in-depth, honest
. investiga�ion into
what we are
saying about our
family,"
May 13, 1985, and a gunbattle en
sued. Police dropped a bomb on the
group's row house, etting off a fire
that killed 11 people, including John
Africa, and destroyed 61 hom .
"FIVE INNOCENT BABIES
were burned alive," Ramona Africa
said Wednesday. "Six innocent
adults were burned alive. And the
persecution of MOVE continued
with unjust parole stipulations."
The attack left deep scars in the
nation's fifth-largest city. It under
mined the promising career of the
city's first Black mayor, W. Wilson
Goode, and resulted in sweeping'
changes in the police department.
Two grand jury investigations
resulted in no charges against offi
cials, despite a commission report
that accused Goode and his top ad
ministrators of "reckless disregard
for life and property."
MOVE MEMBERS who
weren't at the headquarters that day
now live in a different Philadelphia
neighborhood in two houses bought
with proceeds from legal settlements
with the city. Neighbors say the
group hasn't caused any problems.
Africa was sentenced April 14,
1986, to seven years in prison on riot
and conspiracy charges. She could
have been freed after five months,
but she opted to serve the entire
seven years to avoid constraints on
her activities.
the American press about Cuba i
propaganda. That' why I tell thi
story and encourage people to e for
themselves, to experience what I saw
and what I felt.
My decision to return to Cuba
prove to be a correct one. The people
were still proud, united and strug-
gling to express there independent,
th ir autonomy.
Our government must allow
Americans to travel freely to Cub ,
o that they may ee for themselves
what I aw. We need a policy of
"Hand off Cuba". We need to let the
Rights leaders call L.A.
'The future of America' '.
Ten national civil rights leaders
recently warned that the Rodney
King verdict and the tragic disturban
ces that followed would be repeated
unless major changes were made in
national policy.
Among tho e issuing the state
ment were Julius L. Chambers,
Director-Counsel of the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational
Fund; the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson,
former presidential candidate and
Shadow Senator for the District of
Columbia; and Dr. Joseph E. Lowery,
President of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
The joint statement pointed out
that President Bush's original
response to the King verdict was to
declare "The court system has
worked," a position he abandoned
only when the verdict proved un
popular.
The leaders observed that the
President had at long last expressed
an interest in domestic issues such as
poverty and urban decay, but asked
"Why did dozens have to die, why did
thousands' of buildings have to be
des troyed, to ge t the
Administration's attention?"
. .
Bush endangers Haitians
MlAMI (AP) - President Bush's
order to return Haitian boat people
without letting them make a case for
political asylum is essentially a death
sentence for some, refugee lawyers
told the Miami Herald.
"We have a refugee emergency
in our own back yard and we have
closed our doors," said Bill Frelick,
senior policy analyst for the U.S.
Committee for Refugees, a private
advocacy group. "It's a dangerous
and frightening precedent"
Bush acted after the tent cities at
Guantanamo reached their capacity
last week, saying his intent was to
discourage Haitians from daring the
risky voyage to this country, which
they often do in dangerously over
crowded boats.
The executive order issued May
24 compel Co as t Guard crew to
head straight to Haiti with any boat
people intercepted at sea.
Those wishing to apply for
asylum are directed to the U.S. Em-
bassy in Port-au-Prince.
But a visit there would be
dangerous, some advocates told the
newspaper. �
"If you walk into the embassy,
you're marking yourself as an op
ponent of the military and the de
facto government," said Bill O'
Neill, deputy director for the
Lawyers Committee for Human
Rights in ew York. "People are
identifying themselves as op
ponents."
Further, there isn't sufficient
staff at the embassy to process
thousands of time-consuming
claims, advocates aid.
"It's a sham," said lawyer
Robert Juceam of ew York. He
and other refugee attorney maintain
Bush's order represents a breach of
the 1967 United Nations Protocol
Relating to the Status of Refugees. It
guarantee refugees will not be
returned to a land where their lives
or freedom would be at risk.
The protocol doesn't apply to the
Haitian boat people, the Bush ad
ministration claims, because they
haven't reached U.S. soil.
Since Haiti's first freely-elected
president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
was ousted in a coup last Sept 30,
more than 34,000 Haitians have left
home by boat. About 14,000 have
been sent back to Haiti, 12,500 are in
refugee camps on the U.S. naval base
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the
rest are pursuing asylum claims in
the United States.
U.S. officials have estimated one
in four Hai tians is leaving for politi
cal reasons, the Herald reported.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the Coast
Guard announced it had imple
mented Bush's order but bad s�tted
no Haitian boats since.