The massive clash between the Michael Vick supporters and those who believe he should never be able to don another NFL jersey never happened. Yes, Vick was on hand to show football fans – particularly those in his new town, Philadelphia – his stuff on the field after nearly two years in a federal prison. But, for all the million-dollar hullabaloo over the 29-year-old quarterback’s return, the big night fizzled like an Alka-seltzer in the rain. As The Philadelphia Daily News’ David Gambarcorta put it, it was “about two rings short of a three-ring circus.” Yes, local NAACP President Whyatt Mondesire showed up with pro-Vick troops, but his battalion was about a third shy of his promised 30 troops. He had hoped that an ocean of supporters would show up at Lincoln Financial Field to send a strong signal about Vick’s right to earn a living in his profession of choice, since he had already paid his debt to society. “A lot of people say he shouldn’t be given a second chance,” Mondesire said, blasting what he called racist anti-Vick radio programs. “We’re tired of a one-sided dialogue.” As for the expected horde of animal-rights advocates, it was more like a mini gathering of sorts. The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals decided to stay home from the game, opting instead to use the occasion to raise money for dogs who are victims of cruelty or dogfighting. Meanwhile, Vick made a relatively quiet debut on the field, ending the night with 4-4 passing for about 19 yards. His new squad squeezed out a last-minute 33-32victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Former Editor May Sue Wall Street Journal
Carolyn Phillips, the first African-American assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, may pursue racial discrimination charges against her former employer, a federal judge ruled Monday. Phillips, who worked for the Wall Street Journal for two decades, was fired in November 2002. Having received five merit pay increases, Phillips said that she was marginalized after being shifted to the position of minority recruiter at the newspaper, which was owned by the Dow Jones Co. at the time. It is now owned by media mogul Rupert Murdock. “Plaintiff has produced sufficient circumstantial evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether intentional discrimination influenced the adverse employment decisions at issue,” possibly violating federal and state law, Judge Deborah Batts of the federal district court in Manhattan said in her 45-page order dated Monday. However, Batts’ dismissed Phillips’ separate claim alleging discrimination on the basis of disability. Phillips originally sought compensatory damages and $5 million of punitive damages. Dow Jones spokeswoman Ashley Huston said she is confident that Phillips will not win in a trial. “Dow Jones does not discriminate, period,” “We are gratified the court dismissed the disability claim, and we expect to prevail on the other claim at trial.”
Killer Dogs Put to Death in Georgia
A pack of dogs that mauled to death a University of Georgia librarian and her professor husband last week were disposed of at an Atlanta animal shelter. The 14 mongrel dogs killed Sherry Schweder, 65, and Lothar Karl Schweder, 77. The couple’s shredded bodies were found by a pair of visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses about 12 hours after they went missing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Former neighbors of the couple, who had recently moved away because of medical problems, fed the wild dogs, and residents of this rural stretch of Oglethorpe County said the animals had never been aggressive before. “We never had a problem with them,” said Lanier Bridges, who lives a few houses down on Elberton Road in Lexington. His wife, Jeannette Bridges, said she didn’t believe the dogs were responsible for the vicious attacks.

Tenn. Blacks Want Answers in Two Police Shootings
Angry African-American residents of Chattanooga, Tenn., are demanding answers in the police-related shooting deaths of two Black residents. “We still cannot grasp that our son is gone that’s the hardest thing in the world to overcome,” said James Marine, the father of Alonzo Heyward, who was killed when six Chattanooga Police Officers fired 59 shots at the man they say was threatening suicide, and threatening officers, by not putting down his gun. On Tuesday, about 200 angry residents poured into an NAACP gathering designed to quell tensions over the shooting of Heyward and Alonzo O’Kelly, who was killed in a separate police action. “There is a problem here, and we don’t need no more of this ducking and diving and playing around with the issue, we need some real things done here,” said the Rev. James Moss, who attended the meeting. The Rev. Dwight Harrison was even more direct: “He wasn’t killed, he was murdered.” Chattanooga Police Department spokesman Jerri Weary said he was there to help answers questions and heal the hurt.  “In this situation we all lose, we all lose, the families, the officers. It is not the outcome that any of us wanted but it is the outcome we have to deal with.”

Philadelphia Police Beating Victims Sue
The three misidentified Black men who were snatched from their car, beaten a kicked by several Philadelphia Police officers are suing the city police department. Dawayne Dyches, Pete Hopkins and Brian Hall were all found innocent of charges related to the May 5, 2008 shooting that police they committed. On Thursday, a mostly Black grand jury found that the swarm of officers, who were caught by a TV news camera pummeling the three men, did not use inappropriate force. Thus, they will not be compelled to stand trial for what many observers contend was an apparent abuse of power.  Immediately after the videotape was released showing the melee, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey fired four officers, saying, he had been around a long time and knew police abuse when he saw it. Robert Gamburg, who represented Dyches in the criminal case, expressed shock at the grand jury’s decision. “If it was so lawful, why were people fired and the video showed police literally running from the scene, getting in their cars and literally back away and speeding off?” But John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, said he was not at all surprised by the decision. “We expected this result from the beginning. We said all along these officers did their job and that this was knee jerk reaction from the city, a fire-aim-ready approach.” The grand jury concluded in its report, which followed a 14-month investigation, that forced used by “the police was helpful rather than hurtful; the kicks and blows, in other words, were aimed not to inflict injury but to facilitate quick and safe arrests.”

Evers-Williams Gets Freedom Award
The National Civil Rights Museum has named former NAACP Chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, winner of the National Freedom Award, The Memphis Commercial Appeal has reported. She is one of three other winners of the 18th annual awards, which will be announced later. Medgar Evers had been the Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP for about nine years when he was gunned down in 1963. The sniper, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the slaying in 1994 – mainly through the dogged persistence of Evers-Williams, who served as chairwoman of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998.

The United States, as evidenced by electing its first African-American president, has come a long way, President Obama told the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization Thursday, but he noted that there is still a long way to go. “What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past 100 years,” Obama told a packed audience at the group’s century anniversary. “Even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folks – we know that too many barriers still remain.” He pointed out that “the pain of discrimination is still felt in America,” saying that racial and other barriers to success would only be overcome by the same diligence and commitment expended during the Civil Rights Era. “What is required to overcome today’s barriers is the same as was needed then,” he said. “The same commitment. The same sense of urgency. The same sense of sacrifice. The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best.” And the Obama administration is doing its part to help progress continue, he said. “These are barriers we are beginning to tear down by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; making housing more affordable; and giving ex-offenders a second chance. These are barriers that we are targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, and through Promise Neighborhoods that build on Geoffrey Canada’s success with the Harlem Children’s Zone,” he said. “When it comes to higher education, we are making college and advanced training more affordable, and strengthening community colleges that are a gateway to so many with an initiative that will prepare students not only to earn a degree but find a job when they graduate; an initiative that will help us meet the goal I have set of leading the world in college degrees by 2020.” As for the economy, which is drawing increasing concern among lawmakers and the overall public, the president said that his Cabinet has been trying to “lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity.” He said that “one pillar of this new foundation is health insurance reform that cuts costs, makes quality health coverage affordable for all, and closes health care disparities in the process. Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, freeing America from the grip of foreign oil, putting people to work upgrading low-income homes, and creating jobs that cannot be outsourced.”

The NAACP, Amnesty International and other leading human rights groups are urging everybody to get involved in helping spare the life of Troy Davis, whom they argue is about to be executed for a murder he never committed. “The interest of the state is in the truth,” NAACP President Ben Jealous told the Savannah Morning News Saturday. “If Troy Davis was convicted on lies, then the truth is, a killer’s on the loose.” Jealous, who was in Savannah Friday as part of “I AM TROY,” wants District Attorney Larry Chisholm to reopen the case and find the “real” murderer. Davis, 38, was convicted in 1991 for the shooting death of off-duty Savannah, Ga., Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. However, seven of the nine witnesses who identified Davis as the killer during the initial trial have since recanted their testimony. Despite several appeals – and having his execution delayed on three separate occasions – Davis remains on death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely consider the latest challenge by attorneys for Davis. So how can individuals get involved? Jealous says that those wanting to make an impact should go to the “I Am Troy” Campaign (http://iamtroy.com/), sign the petition and let Gov. Sonny Perdue know that you are outraged by the possible execution of an innocent man.

More on Troy Davis: Thousands Around the World Mark Day of Solidarity

The Civil War may be over, but the Sons of Confederate Vets have been waging a new battle over the past several months. Backed by the Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce, the group has riled up the local chapter of the NAACP by pressing to fly the Confederate colors at this year’s Veteran’s Day parade. The NAACP and members of the Black community want the mayor and City Council to ban what they see as a profound symbol of racism and hate. They do have a point. At the very least, the flag symbolizes treason against the United States, and it does remind African Americans of a period in history when Blacks were nothing more than chattel property – property that many southern Whites were willing to fight over. And even if – as the Sons of Confederate Vets contends – the flag is a “symbol of southern pride,” isn’t there something undeniably un-American about embracing something so offensive to so many people? Last week, Bishop Victor Curry, president of the Miami-Dade NAACP chapter was surrounded by several dozen pastors, local activists and NAACP members when he urged the city to make a stand against the throwback flag. “We do not want to see racism walking down the streets of the city of Homestead, funded by taxpayers,” he told The Miami Herald. The City Council has 30 days to apologize to the community for “failure to understand the hurt caused by the display of the flag” and to have the mayor and City Manager Mike Shehadeh meet with members of the NAACP, PULSE and the Mexican American Council to discuss the offensiveness of the flag. If the council fails to comply, Curry says the NAACP will boycott the chamber’s businesses.

The Baltimore chapter of the NAACP has asked the FBI for an “urgent and extensive investigation” into what errors led the Baltimore Police Department to dismiss at least a dozen internal cases of police misconduct. The civil rights group expressed concern after 12 internal disciplinary reports were thrown out amid charges that they had been mishandled. Last month, JoAnn Woodson-Branche, the officer responsible for prosecuting internal misconduct cases, was fired; the police union had argued that she was responsible for a plethora of errors that violated officers’ rights, The Baltimore Sun reports. Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, head of the Baltimore Branch of the NAACP, said in the letter that the “reasoning given [for the cases being dropped] is suspicious, the timing is suspicious, the affects [sic] are troubling. …Why was only Ms. Woodson-Branch [sic] fired – her action purportedly affected so many,” Cheatham wrote. “Some office and some officials, clearly, had to have some oversight in so many cases.” According to the Sun, one of the cases involved an alleged racial discrimination charge against two White supervisors. Cheatham had personally urged the Police Department to take action on the case and “ensure justice” after it appeared the case might slip by the deadline to charge the accused officers. Police officials now say that the case has been scrapped, saying it was one of several that were mishandled.

Houston Leaders Try to Save Historic Site
Black leaders in Houston, walking in the footsteps of three former slaves, are trying to raise enough funds to save the city’s storied Emancipation Park. They are hoping to come up with about $2 million for improvements to the fitness trail, a children’s water park, new tennis courts and a public amphitheatre. The money would also allow for additional staff to keep the park maintained. Roughly 137 years ago, two Black preachers and a local politician, all former slaves, raised $800 – an impressive sum at the time – for 10 acres that ultimately became Texas’ first and only city park for Black people for more than two decades. As crime and neglect have chipped away at the park, city leaders are determined to restore it to a place of historic pride. Dorris Ellis, president of the nonprofit Friends of Emancipation Park Board and publisher of The Houston Sun newspaper, said that the goal is to make it a destination place once more.  “We want it to be a masterpiece,” she told The Houston Chronicle. “We have a wonderful vision. … We’re planning for 50 years, 100 years down the road,” she said. A historically protected landmark, the park opened in 1872 when pastors Jack Yates and Elias Dibble and political leader Richard Allen raised $800 to acquire the land at an interest rate 6-percent higher than White citizens were charged, Ellis said. “The park was the site of Houston’s first Juneteenth celebration and was donated to the city in 1916,” the Chronicle reports. “When Houston segregated its parks in 1922, Emancipation Park was the only facility open to Blacks.”

 
NAACP Chastises the ACC
Defying the NAACP’s boycott against South Carolina – imposed because the state continues to fly the rebel flag on statehouse grounds – the Atlantic Coast Conference awarded its future baseball contracts to the state. ACC leaders agreed last week on Myrtle Beach, S.C., as the tournament site from 2011 to 2013. In a resolution issued Saturday, the century-old civil rights group said that the ACC’s action plan was devoid of dignity, decency and respect.

More Groups Using Net to Spread Hate

White supremacists, anti-Semites and homophobes have found an effective vehicle for spewing hatred and helping to recruit others to their often violent organizations, according to a new report by a Jewish human rights group.  The Simon Wiesenthal Center, named for the renowned Nazi hunter, found that social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are being used by hatemongers to perpetuate their rhetoric. Read more.

NAACP Calls for N.C. School Official to Resign

The North Carolina branch of the NAACP is demanding the resignation of a Burke County School Board who sent racist, curse-word-laced emails from his personal account. Between September 2008 and February 2009, Rob Hairfield fired off numerous emails that contained the “N”-word, taunted Black victims of the Hurricane Katrina, and showed President Obama as a big-eared shoe-shine boy. Read the rest.

Jack Kemp, the ex-NFL quarterback, former congressman, secretary of HUD and GOP vice presidential nominee, was a strong advocate for civil rights who spent a lifetime championing causes that helped improve life for poor people and people of color, the NAACP said in a statement.  Kemp died of cancer Saturday in Bethesda, Md., surrounded by family and friends. He was 73. “Congressman Jack Kemp was a truly great ally of the NAACP.  His work and dedication during and after his tenure as a congressman helped shape the NAACP as we know it today,” stated Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.   “Congressman Kemp’s support for civil rights was unparalleled during his career.  From his unwavering support for equality in our economic system to exposing the racial discrimination in our housing system, Jack Kemp was truly a revolutionary in the Republican Party.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.” Julian Bond, chairman of the century-old civil rights group also praised Kemp. “Through his work on the National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity with the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, National Fair Housing Alliance and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he was able to educate millions of Americans about housing discrimination,” Bond said.  “America has lost a great man in Jack Kemp; he was not afraid to stand up to his own political party in order to achieve equality in this country.  The NAACP board and our entire organization send our deepest condolences to his family.” Jack Kemp served on a number of advisory committees for the NAACP including search committees for a new president and CEO.  Kemp also served on the NAACP Futures Committee that is charged with guiding the agenda for the NAACP in moving forward.  In 1989, then Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Jack Kemp addressed the NAACP Annual Convention, in 2007 when the 2008 Republican Presidential candidates boycotted a race relations debate organized by Tavis Smiley, Kemp took to the airwaves and criticized the Republican Party for ignoring race relations.