Civil rights museum’s racial makeup becomes an issue

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The National Civil Rights Museum, built around the motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, is drawing criticism that its governing board is too white and too closely tied to big business to watch over such an important piece of black history.

“The board should more nearly approximate the soldiers of the civil rights movement that it celebrates, and they were overwhelmingly African American,” said D’Army Bailey, a black Tennessee judge who played a major role in the museum’s founding but resigned from the board in 1991 when it refused to make him chairman.

The museum opened 16 years ago at the old Lorraine Motel and is run by a foundation under a lease from the state. A citizens group, largely inspired by Bailey, opposes renewal of the foundation’s lease and argues that the museum should instead be run by the government, whether local, state or federal.

Of its 32 board members, the Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Foundation lists 12 as representatives of large corporations, including FedEx, AutoZone and International Paper. Fifteen board members are black, 15 are white, one is Hispanic and one is of East Indian heritage.

Board member Pitt Hyde III, a white man and the retired founder and chief executive of AutoZone, defended the makeup of the museum’s leadership, saying: “I think we have a very representative board that’s a cross-section of the community.”

And board chairman Benjamin Hooks, a black man and former head of the NAACP, said the corporate representation helps the museum raise the private gifts and corporate donations on which it relies so heavily. Hyde’s family foundation, for example, has contributed more than $4 million.

Georgia politician wants to name interstate exchange for Clarence Thomas

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A state lawmaker is pushing to name an interstate exchange near Savannah for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
State Sen. Eric Johnson, a Savannah Republican, says he plans to introduce legislation that would call for the interchange of Interstate 95 and Interstate 16 to be named for Thomas, who was born in nearby Pin Point and is the second black justice on the Supreme Court.

Efforts in 2001 to affix Thomas’ name to Savannah’s historic Carnegie Library were met with controversy — mostly because of the conservative justice’s vocal opposition to affirmative action. Under a compromise, a wing of the library bears Thomas’ name.

Iowa governor finalizes task force looking at minorities in detention

DES MOINES, Iowa — Gov. Chet Culver has put the final touches on a task force that will examine the disproportionate number of young minority residents in detention centers.

Iowa ranks No. 1 in the country in the ratio of blacks to whites in prison, according to a national study released by the Washington D.C.-based Sentencing Project. The study found that blacks are incarcerated at a rate 13.6 times that of whites.

Advocates say the solution requires early intervention. Minority youth comprise 40 percent of those in juvenile detention centers in the state, with blacks making up two-thirds of that number.

Culver created the task force in May. Last Thursday, he issued an order that formalizes the group. It creates expectations and calls for the collaboration of state and local juvenile justice systems in identifying problems and finding solutions.

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge said reducing the disproportionate number of minorities in detention facilities is an important issue.

“Children are our greatest resource,” Judge said. “We must bring this disparity in our juvenile justice system down so that every Iowa child can achieve the success we all know is possible.”

State Rep. Wayne Ford, a Des Moines Democrat, has worked on various state and local initiatives to lower minority incarceration rates. He said the task force will help move the state ahead of previous efforts to reduce the disparity between blacks and whites in prison.

“This issue is not going to go away,” Ford said.

U.S. Navy frees ship from Somali pirates

NAIROBI, Kenya — The U.S. Navy on Monday helped free the fifth ship in a week hijacked by Somali pirates, attempting to bring security to crucial shipping routes between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

Pirates released the Taiwanese fishing vessel 5 1/2 months after seizing it. U.S. naval personnel have been telling the pirates by radio to abandon hijacked vessels, get back in their small skiffs and return to Somalia.

“We encourage pirates to leave the ships,” said Cmdr. Lydia Robertson of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. “We tell them, you get in the skiff, you leave, you do not take any hostages.”

Robertson said the Navy was in contact with two remaining ships held by pirates in Somali waters.

The latest fishing vessel freed by the U.S. Navy had two Taiwanese and 12 Chinese crewmembers aboard when it was hijacked 137 miles off the coast of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in May.

Two other boats hijacked by Somali pirates in May were freed after U.S. Navy personnel spoke to them by radio.

U.S. sailors also boarded a North Korean ship to treat crewmembers who overpowered their hijackers, and a U.S. naval vessel fired on pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese-owned ship.

Somalia’s lawless coastlines are a haven for heavily armed pirates who use speedboats with Global Positioning System equipment, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades. The country has lacked a functioning government since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other.