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VOL XV NO. 40 A" lniouncc! People Is A Free People AUGUST 22 - 28. 1993
York, NY - "It i impor­
tant to consider that t.be African­
American has been neglected in
this country," aid Dr. Michael L.
Blakely, Howard University di­
rector of the burial project in
which slave remains were un­
earthed from a landmark burial
ground in lower Manhattan in
1991.
T.be bones, the I t remains of
a people treated in this life like
chattel, were fouOO as workers be­
gan construction on a $276 mil­
lion, 34-story Federal office
building.
New York Mayor David Dink­
im and members of Congress lob­
bied the Federal General Services
AdmiWstIation, t.be owners of the .
building, to change its design in
order to designa the site as an
his toric landmark.
"This is the mo t important Af­
rican arcbeoloaical i in the
United S ," Blu Y aid. "A
people' fCJenUty is largely histori­
cal. What we koow of ourselves
is primarily connected wi th the
p 1. How we developed here is
•
.By RON SEIGEL
Mlchlp.n Citizen
IUGHLANDPARK-Highland
Park Councilwoman Greta
Johnson is scheduled to go, be­
fore Harpel' Woods Judge Roger
J. La Rose of the 32A Judician
District Court Monday, August
23 at 1:30 p.m, because of what
he declares to be an act of civil
disobedience.
On July 13, Johnson burned
her garbage in violation of a city
ordinance to protest the lack of
city garbage pickups, which she
charged endangered people's
. health and lives.
Johnson said a 'Highland
Park court official transferred
the case to another city because
he declared knowing her as a
councilwoman would hamper
his impartiality. .
She said a large number of
residents attended the first
hearing in support of her and
she suspected a number of High­
land Parkers might attend the
second hearing as' well.
JohhSOn emphasized she does
re a
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important to how we believe in
ourselves and look to tbe future."
Blakely, Howard University,
and other concerned African­
Americans, recently won a com­
plicated game of tug of war over
the 430 skeletons and 1.5 million
artifacts.
THE STRUGGLE pitted
them against a group of whi an­
thropologi ts hired to dig the
bones from the site.
MF AT (Metropolitan Forsenic
Anthropology Team), the eight­
member group that opposed
Blakely, claimed_ that the history
of the bones should, be told from a
multi-faceted point ofvicw.
Spencer ThIkel, eo-director of
MFAT, bad said that "a variety of
biases.i.get clo er to the truth."
But for African-Americam who
fought 'nat MFAT, and wo
". variety of bi " meant • d' -
tortion of history that leads to a
downplay of the African-Ameri­
can role in history.
See AFRICANS, Page A-2
not want anyone else to burn
garbage because she fears this
"would be very dangerous" r cre­
ating a fire hazard and an envi-
ronmental problem. .
SHE ADDS THOUGH that
she was following the practices
of Dr. Martin Luther King in
performing civil disobedience in
protest of injustice. .
She said that she took precau­
tions - placing the garbage in a
small, neat pile, and having a
portable phone, which she OQuld
use to contact the fire depart­
ment, if the fire got out of con­
trol.
Johnson said she anticipaces
being given a fine of $60 for the
first offense, but adds she will
refuse to pay and go tojail for the
sake of principle.
She said the reason for the
garbage crisis was the decision
of the other members of the
Highland Park City Council to
approve Mayor Linsey Porter's
budget to privatize city garbage
services.
See COURT, A8
PC ou ncilwo man
CQ rt Monday
By TERRY KELLY
ST. JOSEPH -Though the
NAACP, the Benton Harbor Qty
Commi ion and a h t of interested
citizens are all pulling for Maurice
Carter to win the right to a new trial,
the Berrien County Courts remain
the me after 17 years: deaf, dumb
am blind to hi plea for justice.
Circuit Court Judge John Ham-
mond ruled Monday, Aug t 16
there w no evid nee that an Afri­
can American woman w excluded
from Carter' jury on the b is of her
race.
The ruli ng came at the end of a
evidentiary hearing that tretched
from January 21 when a brownout
closed the courthouse, to May 17
when the hearing w reces ed until
Monday, Aug t 16.
The' uew theque tionofjury
tampering. The dat back to
December 1973 when Blac
ailant hot at off -duty, white Ben­
ton Harbor police officer Thomas
Schadler.
He recovered nd' now the chief
inve tigator for Berrien County
p ecutor,
Two yeam later, on the perjured
timony of a drug addict making a
Not just another fi h tale
By MlCHAE;L P. NEAL
Sp!C'" to t'" Mlchlp.n Cltlan
Bassin' Bob's Fresh Fish
Company; a fish market on
wheels featuring nearly 15 kinds
of fish, lobster, crab, shrimp, and
even the favorite side-dishes to
go with them, just might be
cruising your area.
Layed ofT in the mid-80's from
a management position at Gen­
eral Motors - after climbing the
ranks as a lin worker and mill­
wright - Bob Marshall, a De­
troit native t out to "find a
niche" that would pay the rent
and fulfill his greater sense of
purpose.
the same pay I did at GM?" Mar­
shall firat asked himself, back
then. Next he worked for a whil
as a truck driver, then for a
manufacturer on Detroit's east­
side. But that too, soon got old.
"It was the only job I could find
that would pay me the same,"
Bob recalled from his plush
home office on Detroit's north­
w t side.
"Then I got a vision from the
lord," recalls the deeply religious
Marshall, saved in 1986. "I
prayed. for my own busin and
I got my bl ing: to put me­
thing back into the community."
See BOB,A8
DETROIT - Let's see, you've
got your Milkman, your Vegeta-.
ble-man, your Fruitman. Your
Ice-cream maA, Fish-man ...
F' h-manl Uh, yeah.
You mean you 've never looked
out the window and seen th
fish-truck coming down the
street?
Oh.
Well, looky here, a Black guy
named Bob has a tip for you. And
for Detroiter's who covet fresh
sea fare, and friendly curb rv­
ice (reminiscent of the 1950's) it's
the catch of the day.
"WHAT CAN I do to make
deal for himself, Carter w arrested
in his hometown of Gary, Imiana for
the crime.
CARTER HA TEAD·
F ASTL Y maintained his Innocence.
There w no motive or no physical
evidence to link him to the crime,
only eyewitn accounts. .
The tore clerk present at the
hooting has slaunchly denied Car­
ter w the man in the hop with her
fo five minutes prior to the shoot­
ing.
But the clerk, like Carter i Black,
am the all-white jury li tened in­
stead to whites who glimpsed the
gunman he ran down the Main
Street of then racially changing Ben­
ton Harbor.
ut the jury a heard Schadler
tffy at the trial it w Carter who
hot him, although on the day of the
hooting Schadler told his fellow of­
ficers he could not identify the -
ail ant.
In 1975, when Carter war­
res ted, the local paper took his pic­
ture and printed it on page one. Only
then did SchadJer pick Carter out of
a line up. Carter has been in jail ever
since.
SIMILAR MEMORY zigzag
occured at Monday's hearing.
The hearing w to determine
whether new information about the
lack of Blacks on the Carter jury w
grounds for a new trial.
Frank Mafrice, a Southfield attor­
ney with the firm of Sommers,
Schwartz, Silver and Schwartz, took
up Carter's case three years ago
when he, too, became convinced of
Carter's innocence.
After investigation, Mafrice dls­
covered that the court' explanation
in 1976 why no Blae were on the
jury did not tx>ld up.
At the time, Bailiff Edwin Bartz
t tified under oath that two Black
women were on the jury panel, but
had to be excused beca e of the
demands of their jobs. .
One of th women was Cle-
mentine Brown who worked for
Michigan Bell.
According to Bailiff Bartz,
Brown was "head of a very impor­
tant job" at the phone company am
at their req t w excused.
BROWN, WHO NOW liv in
Kalamazoo, wa contacted by
Mafrice and told a different tory.
. Brown testified at the eviden-
See CARTER, A2
"No. I don't think so, however,
to make that determ ination
more evidence needs to be
presented. "
- Sh wnlta Willi m
"Ves. I think the police covered
up the fact that here is still
racial prejudice in he southern
states."
·1 don't think there was a
cover-up. The. teenagers
charged were out for a fast
buck."
lch I W bb
-- K ith Dum.
-0 rlnTyl r
"Yes. It's not normal for a
father to be missing for three
weeks without communication
with his family. Indeed a
cover-up."