By Maya Rhodan
Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – They were Southern governors who shared the same last name – Perdue – but took different approaches in two high-profile race-sensitive cases. Despite a direct appeal from Pope Benedict XVI, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue did not spare Troy Davis from execution in 2011 for allegedly killing a Savannah policeman.

Over the objections of many, including some members of her own staff, last December North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue issued pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten, activists who were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

Five days before she left office and 40 years after the Wilmington Ten was convicted Perdue, the first female governor of North Carolina, granted full pardons of innocence to the group. Pardons of innocence are granted to show that the state of North Carolina no longer believes the Wilmington Ten committed a crime.

Perdue was honored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation last week for her display of courage. The awards ceremony capped a 2-year campaign by the NNPA to win pardons for the Wilmington Ten.

In issuing the pardons, the North Carolina governor cited “naked racism” for the false conviction of the Wilmington 10, led by Benjamin Chavis.

Mary Alice Thatch, publisher of the Wilmington Journal, persuaded the NNPA to take on the challenge of seeking pardons for the 10 activists.

“I don’t know if you remember Michelle Obama saying, ‘For once in my life, I’m proud of my country,’ Thatch said as the governor was about to be presented with the award. “I want to say to Gov. Perdue, for once in my life, I am proud of North Carolina. Thank you so much.”

The NNPA’s Wilmington Ten Pardon of Innocence Project was an effort to “generate national and worldwide support for the petition, to the state of North Carolina, and specifically the governor, to grant individual pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten.”

Publishers across the country prominently displayed stories on the case. Cash Michaels, editor of the Wilmington Journal, wrote a series of stories most of 2012 that shed light on the questionable actions of the prosecutor, who made notes during jury selection showing a preference for “KKK”-type supporters.

On Feb. 6, 1971, a White-owned grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood was firebombed during a demonstration in Wilmington, N.C. When emergency responders got to the scene, they shot by snipers.

Nine Black men and one white woman were arrested and later charged with conspiracy to commit arson and conspiracy to assault emergency response teams, they became known as the Wilmington Ten.

After three of the prosecution’s witnesses recanted their testimony, Amnesty International and other groups rallied on behalf of the Ten, saying the actions of the prosecutor as unjust and corrupt, portraying the imprisoned group as political prisoners.

In 1980 all of their convictions were overturned, but the governor of North Carolina withheld a pardon. Nearly 40 years later, the pardons were granted.

The efforts of the Black Press were recognized by Chavis, one of the seven surviving members of the Wilmington Ten. Speaking on behalf of the activists and their families, Chavis said. “This is another proud moment. We salute Gov. Beverly Perdue for her courage, for her leadership, and for making a difference.”

Chavis was sent to Wilmington in 1971 by the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice to organize and lead a group of students amid tensions caused by the closing of a Black high school.

Their headquarters were at Gregory Congregational Church, just blocks away from Mike’s Grocery, the White-owned grocery store firebombed in February 1971. Officials claimed to have found ammunition in the church, leading to the arrest and later conviction of Chavis and eight others.

Chavis was sentenced to 34 years in prison.

Although their convictions were overturned in 1980, the Wilmington Ten wasn’t pardoned until Dec. 31, 2012, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

“Without those quiet voices that banded together to speak up for justice in the face of naked racism this wouldn’t have happened,” said former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue after she was presented with the award.

“We in the south understand freedom and equity and privilege,” Perdue said. “It was my privilege to present this pardon of innocence to a group of citizens of my state in this country who were truly innocent. We all would want that for ourselves and our friends and our family and so it was the right thing to do.”

Chavis notes that this event should be a source of pride for the Black Press community.

“The truth is that the context in which the governor made the decision was the context of the Black Press of America through the NNPA flexing its muscles,” Chavis said. “We should never understate what we do, today was a proper statement of what we do.”

Special to the NNPA from the Atlanta Daily World

A new study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute shows that African American teen abortion rates are more than twice as high as the national average.

According to the study, the national average is 18 abortions per 1,000 women among 15-19-year olds. The African-American abortion rate is 41 per 1,000 women among that age group, which is four times higher than non-Hispanic whites abortion rate at 10 per 1,000 and twice as high for Hispanics at 20 per 1,000.

The Guttmacher Institute revealed in a recent study that black women account for 30 percent of all abortions and African Americans make up only 13 percent of the total U.S. population.

In a state-by-state study in states with high abortion rates, African American teen pregnancy had the highest probability of ending in an abortion of any other race.

In New York 67 percent of the time pregnancies among black teens—excluding miscarriages—ended in an abortion. The study determined New York has the highest teen abortion rate in the country.

So far there has not been a study that has found the direct cause for the high abortion rate among black teenagers.

“There’s no definitive research that’s actually been able to answer that question. We just do know that African-American women, including African-American teenagers, just have more pregnancies,” said Rachel Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute.

Jones did mention that poverty and lack of attention put teenagers at a high risk for teen pregnancy and could very well be the reason for such high abortion rates among African American teens.

The Guttmacher Institute figures are from 2008 and are the most recent data available.

Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network

(GIN) – A multinational mining group with projects in Mozambique and Guinea is hemorrhaging cash in West Africa and could even lose its largest investment.

Rio Tinto, under investor pressure to cut costs, has been pressuring the government of Guinea to pick up half the tab for a 400 mile railway. 35 bridges and a four-berth wharf offshore – total cost about $10 billion – but Pres. Alpha Conde says it’s a no-go. “How could a poor west African nation that has recently received debt relief take on obligations of $5 billion – equivalent to Guinea’s annual gross domestic product…?” analysts told The Financial Times newspaper.

Work at the Simandou project may have already been frozen, despite public denials by Sam Walsh, Rio’s new CEO. At a recent meeting with Pres. Conde, Walsh reportedly threatened to cut the Rio Tinto budget by $600 million and cut its staff in Guinea to five people.

But Guinea may have an escape clause. According to its contract with Rio, Guinea may start “termination proceedings” if production fails to begin by 2015.

Similarly in Mozambique, Rio Tinto is finding an unexpected obstacle in the person of Zoria Macajo, the matriarch of Capanga, a small village above the Zambezi River which sits atop one of the world’s largest untapped coal reserves and stands in the way of company expansion.

The 59 year old leader is refusing eviction orders until her people are paid adequately for their land. “Our people have rights. The company promised it would compensate us.”

Rio’s offer of houses and land in a new resettlement area, some 25 miles away, is unappealing. Far from the main road and from jobs, residents call the company-provided homes “ruins, not houses”.

Rio Tinto also has a U.S. presence. In the Salt Lake Valley since 1989, they are the parent company to Kennecott Utah Copper, Kennecott Land Company, Kennecott Exploration and eight support functions totaling more than 2,400 Utah employees.

Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network

(GIN) – Mali’s 40 newspapers were off the stands this week and 16 private FM radio stations were silent or only playing music in response to a government crackdown on media reporting growing discontent among troops fighting Islamist militants in the North.

A soldier’s letter, published by the Le Republicain newspaper, said the armed forces lacked equipment and rations while military top brass were living in comfort in the capital, Bamako.

Le Republicain editor’s Boukary Daou was arrested last Wednesday and has yet to be charged.

Communications Minister Manga Dembele said Mr Daou acted irresponsibly and unpatriotically by publishing the soldiers’ open letter to the president, but there has been no official word from the authorities about the case.

Also silenced was Radio Guintan, a station for women, which had all its transmitter towers destroyed.

“There are people in authority who believe that if we’re stopped from denouncing what they’re up to, then they’ll get away with it,” Radio Guintan’s Ramata Dia told the BBC.

Global media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Mr Daou’s arrest was “another example of Malian security agents acting outside the law in trying to harass journalists”.

Meanwhile, the UN’s human rights body said on Tuesday that preliminary investigations show Malian soldiers have been carrying out retaliatory attacks on ethnic groups perceived to have supported rebel groups.

“Thousands have reportedly fled out of fear of reprisal by the Malian army,” the deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, was quoted to say.