Latest / The People's News / Louisiana Trashes 45k Legal Votes; Trump ICE Kills WC Attendance; HISD Teacher Fired for Teaching - TPN 5/17/26

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Louisiana Trashes 45k Legal Votes; Trump ICE Kills WC Attendance; HISD Teacher Fired for Teaching - TPN 5/17/26 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of May seventeenth, twenty twenty six, and
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Speaker 1: this is what's on the People's news. Jim Crow is
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Speaker 1: back as the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Act is
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Speaker 1: gutting ice at the World Cup in Houston, and not
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Speaker 1: the one that helps you stay cool. Community outrage after
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Speaker 1: a child denied access to bathroom at a local gas station,
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Speaker 1: hid teacher fired for teaching. All that and more on
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Speaker 1: the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News,
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Speaker 1: and the People's News starts now. The nineteen sixty five
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Speaker 1: Voting Rights Act for six decades protected minorities right to vote.
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Speaker 1: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act five
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Speaker 1: months after state troopers attacked peaceful civil rights marchers on
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Speaker 1: the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The Voting Rights
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Speaker 1: Act gave power to minorities after years of being denied
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Speaker 1: the right to vote because of Jim Crow laws, especially
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Speaker 1: in the Southern States. The Voting Rights Act is now
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Speaker 1: defunct as of last week, as the U. S. Supreme
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Speaker 1: Court ruled six to three that there was no need
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Speaker 1: for those protections in a colorblind society as we have
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Speaker 1: now The ruling in Louisiana versus Calais says that having
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Speaker 1: a second black district in that state is unconstitutional. This
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Speaker 1: is set up putting on hold an election for the
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Speaker 1: midterms in November. Local reaction was swift, as Congressman Al
1:44
Speaker 1: Green held a press conference on Friday to discuss plans.
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Speaker 2: The message has to do with the Supreme Court of
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Speaker 2: the United States of America. The Supreme Court has changed
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Speaker 2: the rules, change the rules that the Voting Rights Act
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Speaker 2: is almost insignificant now. The Voting Rights Act had its
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Speaker 2: birth at the Edmund Pettis Bridge on bloody Sunday. Much
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Speaker 2: of what we have in the Voting Rights Act, while
2:14
Speaker 2: it was signed in ink, it was written with the blood.
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Speaker 3: Of people at the Edmund Pettis Bridge.
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Speaker 2: And because of what happened at the Edmund Pettis Bridge,
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Speaker 2: we have been able to have people of color elected
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Speaker 2: across the length and breadth of the country, to hold
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Speaker 2: positions in Congress, to hold positions in state houses, on
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Speaker 2: Commissioner's courts, to hold positions that they would.
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Speaker 3: Not have but for the Voting Rights Act.
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Speaker 2: And there are some people who seem to believe that
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Speaker 2: the times have changed to the extent that the Voting
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Speaker 2: Rights Act is no longer needed, that we have progressed
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Speaker 2: to the point.
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Speaker 3: Now where we can be totally color blind. Well, I
2:54
Speaker 3: believe in.
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Speaker 2: A color blind society, but I also understand that society
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Speaker 2: was not colorblind when it allowed us to have people enslaved,
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Speaker 2: when it allowed us to have representation such that we
3:07
Speaker 2: had invidious discrimination known as segregation, it was not colorblind.
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Speaker 2: It saw people of color as less than persons who
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Speaker 2: should be protected by the Constitution of the United States
3:18
Speaker 2: of America to the same extent as some others. So
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Speaker 2: we are here because the Supreme Court in Louisiana versus
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Speaker 2: Calais has changed the rules. The Supreme Court has said
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Speaker 2: now to the world that in this country, partisan politics
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Speaker 2: is more important than protecting the rights of people of
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Speaker 2: color to have representation in Congress and in state houses
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Speaker 2: and on commissioners courts and as city councils. This decision
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Speaker 2: from the Supreme Court is far reaching and wide ranging.
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Speaker 2: It is going to make a difference in representation. There
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Speaker 2: are many who have already prognosticated that about twenty percent
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Speaker 2: of the members of Congress will no longer be there. Well,
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Speaker 2: seems that This prognostication is already manifesting itself in Louisiana
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Speaker 2: because the governor of Louisiana is postponing the election, postponing
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Speaker 2: the election that's supposed to be starting, postponing it.
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Speaker 3: So that he can now draw new lines.
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Speaker 2: It is believed that when those new lines are drawn,
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Speaker 2: there will be one less person of color capable of
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Speaker 2: being elected.
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Speaker 3: To the Congress of the United States of America. The
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Speaker 3: rules have changed.
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Speaker 2: When the rules change and partisan politics is allowed to
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Speaker 2: in perpetrate in vidious discrimination under the guise of partisan politics.
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Speaker 2: When you can do that, and you can discriminate and
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Speaker 2: just simply say, oh, I did that for partisans political reasons, Well,
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Speaker 2: when you can do that, how will we prove that
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Speaker 2: in vidious discrimination harm for discrimination, that people of color
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Speaker 2: are being denied access to Congress because of discrimination. How
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Speaker 2: do we prove it when all you have to do
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Speaker 2: is say it was partisan politics.
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Speaker 3: That's about where we are.
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Speaker 2: So here are the rules now with this new partisan
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Speaker 2: politics rule, we have to understand that we can no
5:12
Speaker 2: longer allow the fires that are started by.
5:15
Speaker 3: Others to go uncontested. We are gonna have to fight
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Speaker 3: fire with fire. We can no longer say that this
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Speaker 3: is wrong. You shouldn't do that.
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Speaker 2: We are not gonna fight of you with the same
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Speaker 2: rules that you're using. No, the rules have changed and
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Speaker 2: we've got to adopt the rules that others are using.
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Speaker 2: And that means that if there's a fire, then we've
5:36
Speaker 2: got to have a backfire. In forestry, when you have
5:39
Speaker 2: a raging fire, you start a backfire so that you
5:42
Speaker 2: can prevent the fire from proceeding along a certain line.
5:45
Speaker 2: Where we now have to have a backfire. In basketball,
5:48
Speaker 2: when the rules changed and a three point shot became prevalent,
5:52
Speaker 2: every team adopted the three point shot so that they
5:55
Speaker 2: can win games.
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Speaker 3: You can't win a basketball game without using three point shot.
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Speaker 3: When the rules have changed and.
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Speaker 2: Somebody is assaulting you with a knife, you can't fight
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Speaker 2: back with a toothpick. You've got to have the same
6:08
Speaker 2: level of fight back to defend yourself that they're usual
6:11
Speaker 2: to offend you.
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Speaker 3: So we have to now change with the rules.
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Speaker 2: So if the Supreme Court has been stacked, and the
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Speaker 2: deck has been stacked by President Trump, he has stacked
6:22
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court so that we can get the decision
6:24
Speaker 2: that we have today.
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Speaker 3: And if he's going to stack the Supreme Court.
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Speaker 2: The only way we can unstack it is to add
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Speaker 2: more judges to it. And I am right now having
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Speaker 2: my staff work with Legislative Counsel in Congress so that
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Speaker 2: we can produce legislation to add more justices to the
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Speaker 2: Supreme Court, to bring back some sense of equality, some balance,
6:46
Speaker 2: to make sure that what the President has done to
6:48
Speaker 2: stack the court, we can.
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Speaker 3: Do to unstack the court.
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Speaker 2: We've got to unstack it, yes, and that is by
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Speaker 2: adding more justices. I have already played that in the
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Speaker 2: hands of Legislative Council. I'm waiting for it to come back,
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Speaker 2: and when we get that, I will let the world
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Speaker 2: know what our pretensions are in terms of the number
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Speaker 2: of new justices on the court. We're going to do this.
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Speaker 2: We've got to fight fire with fire. He used the
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Speaker 2: fire of bringing in people who were committed to him,
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Speaker 2: Committed to allowing him to have his way when it
7:20
Speaker 2: comes to war, committed to him to allow him to
7:23
Speaker 2: have his way when it comes to redistrictive, committed to
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Speaker 2: him to allow him to just take seats out of
7:28
Speaker 2: Texas five seats and to put them over in the
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Speaker 2: Republican column, simply because he wanted more votes in Congress
7:34
Speaker 2: so that he can maintain power. Well, we have to
7:38
Speaker 2: fight that kind of fire with the same kind of fire,
7:42
Speaker 2: and every state in this country has to be prepared
7:45
Speaker 2: now to redraw the lines. There is no need for
7:48
Speaker 2: us to continue to say this is wrong. We can't
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Speaker 2: do it. The other Supreme Court said it's right. So
7:53
Speaker 2: we've now got to be prepared to redraw the lines.
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Speaker 2: We've got to meet that fire that they have started
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Speaker 2: with a similar kind of fire. I don't like having
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Speaker 2: to say this. My preference would be that the Supreme
8:05
Speaker 2: Court have allowed the Voting Rights to Act to maintain
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Speaker 2: what it was doing, which was allowing people of color
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Speaker 2: to get elected and protecting them.
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Speaker 3: But that is no longer the case now that case has.
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Speaker 2: Been set aside by the Supreme Court with the Louisiana case.
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Speaker 3: So finally this friends, we are going to have to litigate.
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Speaker 3: I believe in that. Let's continue to litigate. We're gonna
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Speaker 3: have to negotiate.
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Speaker 2: I believe in that as well, But we're also going
8:34
Speaker 2: to have to engage in addition to litigation, and no
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Speaker 2: go negotiation, We're gonna have to engage in protestation.
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Speaker 3: There is a time and a place for us to
8:44
Speaker 3: peacefully protest.
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Speaker 2: If you're gonna treat us like you treated us in
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Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five, then we gotta behave lawfully peacefully like
8:54
Speaker 2: we behaved in nineteen sixty five and in nineteen sixty five,
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Speaker 2: to acquire.
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Speaker 3: The Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five.
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Speaker 2: John Lewis and others went to the Edmund Pettis Bridge.
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Speaker 2: They were marching from Selwyn to Montgomery, and in so
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Speaker 2: doing that we had what.
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Speaker 3: Was called bloody Sunday. But they marched on. They did
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Speaker 3: not turn back. They were beaten back to the church
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Speaker 3: where they started.
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Speaker 2: So if we are going to be treated like people
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Speaker 2: were treated, and they should have been treated the way
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Speaker 2: they were in nineteen sixty five, then we've got to
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Speaker 2: resort to the same tactics, and that tactic includes protests.
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Speaker 3: We have got to be prepared to protest.
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Speaker 2: I am now instructing my staff to be prepared for
9:38
Speaker 2: us to have a peace for protest right here in Houston, Texas,
9:42
Speaker 2: to combat this level of invidious discrimination as being perpetrated
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Speaker 2: upon people of color, and the Supreme Court is sanctioning it.
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Speaker 3: So with the Supreme Court sanctioning it.
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Speaker 2: Then we've got to let the Supreme Court know that
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Speaker 2: the people are not going to tolerate it. And if
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Speaker 2: we are not going to tolerate it, we will go
9:59
Speaker 2: back to the slogan that we've used Manettanta, that.
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Speaker 3: Is, no justice, no peace, no.
10:05
Speaker 2: Justice, no peace, no justice, no peace, no justice.
10:11
Speaker 3: No pe.
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Speaker 1: The effects of this ruling will have impact on the
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Speaker 1: midterm elections and beyond, but its immediate impact is that
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Speaker 1: minorities in Louisiana voting rights are being denied. Last week,
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Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana versus Calais, took
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Speaker 1: away black representation in that state. It rendered an effective
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Speaker 1: Section two of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining
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Speaker 1: powerful provision of the nineteen sixty five civil rights law
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Speaker 1: that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section two has long
10:48
Speaker 1: been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.
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Speaker 1: Court ruled that race cannot be a factor in deciding districts.
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Speaker 1: The ruling was a firecracker for Republicans states in the South.
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Speaker 1: Eight states are redrawing their district maps to eliminate black
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Speaker 1: majority districts. Congressman Benny G. Thompson is in Houston for
11:13
Speaker 1: the Fife A World Cup safety review, was blunt on
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Speaker 1: what this means coming from Mississippi. He stated that Mississippi
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Speaker 1: has had a history of racism and disenfranchisement that is
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Speaker 1: going back to the Klan Jim Crow days when blacks
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Speaker 1: were considered three eighths of a human being.
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Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's a bad decision. It's bad for
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Speaker 4: the country, it's bad for black people, it's bad for
11:39
Speaker 4: right thinking people. And so what we're going to have
11:41
Speaker 4: to do is organize and push back. Now what you understand,
11:49
Speaker 4: this is Jim Crow two point zero sixty years ago.
11:54
Speaker 4: We were in this same situation in Congress and its
11:58
Speaker 4: infinite wisdom the voting rights at So here we are
12:02
Speaker 4: sixty years later, and a Trump Supreme Court has now
12:07
Speaker 4: decided that they want to turn back the hands of time,
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Speaker 4: and so right thinking people are going to still have
12:17
Speaker 4: to do what's required. We're gonna have to go to
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Speaker 4: the state capitals when they try to redraw it and protest.
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Speaker 3: We're gonna have to make sure we put.
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Speaker 4: In the record the history of electioning in our particular area.
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Speaker 4: Because the ink wasn't dry on the decision before the
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Speaker 4: governor of Louisiana, Governor of Alabama, the governor of Tennessee
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Speaker 4: said we're going to call a special session and get
12:50
Speaker 4: rid of them. You know, when they say get rid
12:53
Speaker 4: of them, you know what they're talking about. So all
12:56
Speaker 4: of a sudden, black people don't matter.
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Speaker 3: You know.
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Speaker 4: All we ask for is a seat at the table.
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Speaker 4: And so now you want us to go back to
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Speaker 4: the back of the bus, and you're gonna legislate it,
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Speaker 4: and we can't stand that. You know, for most of us.
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Speaker 4: I was born in Bolton, Mississippi. So when they tell
13:22
Speaker 4: me they go back where I came from, I can
13:25
Speaker 4: only go back to Bolton, Mississippi.
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Speaker 5: You know.
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Speaker 4: So this notion that somehow, as a Black American, I'm
13:32
Speaker 4: some kind of immigrant to this country, and I'm not
13:39
Speaker 4: gonna stand for it. The Congressional Black Caucus is not
13:41
Speaker 4: gonna stand for it. NAACP is not gonna stand for it.
13:46
Speaker 4: The Divine Nine is not gonna stand for The Masonics
13:51
Speaker 4: organizations in this country, the Elk organizations are not gonna
13:55
Speaker 4: stand for it. This one issue has a gathering rising
14:00
Speaker 4: effect on a black community in this country.
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Speaker 6: It's gonna shrink people saying it's gonna shrink the Black caucus.
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Speaker 6: As far as let's representation.
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Speaker 4: Well, well, you know it has the potential. But you
14:16
Speaker 4: know in the South, sometimes folks say, God don't like ugly,
14:21
Speaker 4: and this is ugly. And so what we're gonna have
14:24
Speaker 4: to do is get off our knees after we pray
14:31
Speaker 4: and go to work and at the end of the
14:33
Speaker 4: day come at every opportunity to go vote. So that
14:38
Speaker 4: means from now on, from eighteen years of age up,
14:45
Speaker 4: you have to be a registered voter. As Baracos Obama said,
14:52
Speaker 4: don't get mad vote And I guarantee you if you
14:57
Speaker 4: believe that these policies is of Donald Trump, it's good
15:02
Speaker 4: for this country. You are a sick person. If you
15:07
Speaker 4: think children don't deserve medical care, they don't deserve adequate education,
15:14
Speaker 4: that they don't deserve staying in a decent house, something
15:17
Speaker 4: is bad wrong with you. I happen to believe that
15:22
Speaker 4: in the greatest country in the world, there's opportunity for all.
15:28
Speaker 4: There are some people who don't want that opportunity to
15:31
Speaker 4: be for all. And these are the folks who are
15:34
Speaker 4: encouraging these reapportionment redistricting kind of situation. And they're bad
15:41
Speaker 4: for America. You know, we can differ, but we don't
15:46
Speaker 4: have to be racist with the differences. We don't have
15:51
Speaker 4: to be evil with the differences. And we have to
15:57
Speaker 4: you know, our north star as a country should be
16:01
Speaker 4: that we set the high water bark. But people of
16:06
Speaker 4: different races, colors, and creeds can live, and we can
16:11
Speaker 4: disagree and we can peacefully coexist. This president does not
16:17
Speaker 4: want that peaceful coexistence to exist, and that's why we
16:22
Speaker 4: have to push back all the time. He's monetizing all
16:27
Speaker 4: this hate for him and his family. Just check the calendar.
16:34
Speaker 4: His son just got a no bid contract from the
16:38
Speaker 4: Department of Defense to do drunk drones, you know, no
16:44
Speaker 4: bed and you know, and then he doesn't want to
16:48
Speaker 4: feed home gry children, you know, grafting in real time
16:57
Speaker 4: and you can see it with your own eyes.
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Speaker 3: We have to do better.
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Speaker 7: For another analysis, doctor Adams Empa, Director Professor, Director Executive
17:06
Speaker 7: of Master Republic Administration at Texas Southern University, who is
17:11
Speaker 7: also from Mississippi, added.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the best way to frame the the
17:17
Speaker 5: decision is that basically they made it difficult to challenge
17:22
Speaker 5: these redistricting maps that we can see in terms of
17:25
Speaker 5: some of the changes on the basis of race, and
17:30
Speaker 5: the Voting Rights Act that was passed in nineteen sixty
17:34
Speaker 5: five was basically a piece of comprehensive legislation that was
17:40
Speaker 5: designed to correct everything that happened post Reconstruction in terms
17:47
Speaker 5: of looking at Black Americans, in particular in the South,
17:52
Speaker 5: who were given the right to vote and also participate
17:57
Speaker 5: in the American political system and that they participate. Indeed
18:02
Speaker 5: they did, and the Reconstruction period basically there were three
18:07
Speaker 5: amendments added to the United States Constitution that we refer
18:11
Speaker 5: to as the Civil War Amendments, namely the thirteenth Amendment
18:16
Speaker 5: that abolished slavery. The fourteenth Amendment came that was designed
18:21
Speaker 5: to make black American citizens and to correct the case
18:27
Speaker 5: of Dred Scott versus Sanford, when Justice Tunney, who was
18:31
Speaker 5: a US Supreme Court justice, said that black people had
18:33
Speaker 5: no rights that white were being to respect. And the
18:37
Speaker 5: fifteenth Amendment was added to give black American men the
18:44
Speaker 5: right to cast a franchise or what we say a ballot,
18:47
Speaker 5: or to vote. And what happened during this period posts
18:54
Speaker 5: Civil War up until circa eighteen ninety, black Americans participate
19:00
Speaker 5: in the American political system. Not only did they vote,
19:04
Speaker 5: they held political office. They were members of the United
19:08
Speaker 5: States Congress. Also they held state legislative physicians. In particular,
19:14
Speaker 5: we had the largest number of black elected officials in
19:17
Speaker 5: South Carolina and also and Mississippi. And what happened that
19:22
Speaker 5: was the presidential elections pitting Samuel Tilden versus Rudif Behaves.
19:28
Speaker 5: And Rutif Behaves wanted to be President of the United
19:30
Speaker 5: States so badly that he told the Southern states that
19:34
Speaker 5: if they were to give them give him their electoral support,
19:39
Speaker 5: that he would end Reconstruction. And they went on they
19:43
Speaker 5: supported RUTHERF. Behaves. He was elected president, and he withdrew
19:48
Speaker 5: the federal troops from the South and thereby end in Reconstruction.
19:53
Speaker 5: And what happened immediately in eighteen ninety, the state of
19:56
Speaker 5: Mississippi immediately rewrote his constitution for the express purposes of
20:01
Speaker 5: disenfranchising black Americans, and the other states followed suits. Now
20:06
Speaker 5: you've seen a lot of people in the CDC are
20:09
Speaker 5: saying that all way back in that period. Again, I
20:12
Speaker 5: don't know if that's the case. But what happened after
20:15
Speaker 5: Reconstruction we had the civil rights movement. But you have
20:20
Speaker 5: to remember, now, there was the graphic pictures of John
20:24
Speaker 5: Lewis being beaten on the Edmunds Pettis Bridge, and immediately
20:29
Speaker 5: after that that caught the psyche of the American people
20:33
Speaker 5: because it was on national TV and Lyndon Vane Johnson
20:37
Speaker 5: immediately say, well, hey, I'm going to pass a comprehensive
20:41
Speaker 5: voting bill and to make sure that black Americans throughout
20:46
Speaker 5: the United States of America who wanted to participate could participate.
20:50
Speaker 5: And so we saw the enacument of the nineteen sixty
20:54
Speaker 5: five Voting Rights Act, and when Barbara Jordan was elected
20:57
Speaker 5: to the United States Congress, we saw the expansion of
21:00
Speaker 5: the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Acts, who include a
21:04
Speaker 5: language provision, and what she was doing was to bring
21:07
Speaker 5: in bilinguals, in particular Hispanics or Latinos in Texas and
21:14
Speaker 5: other places. So that's the history of that. Now, what
21:16
Speaker 5: happened in this case, in the case style Louisiana versus College,
21:21
Speaker 5: what they did they looked at Section two and Section
21:24
Speaker 5: two basically is a provision that says that in a
21:30
Speaker 5: minority that basically, if they alleged that the maps were
21:34
Speaker 5: drawn in a fashion that was designed to discriminate against
21:39
Speaker 5: black Americans, that they could use this provision to file
21:43
Speaker 5: lawsuits in federal courts, and certainly the Supreme Court could
21:47
Speaker 5: hear these kinds of accents. Now we saw beginning in
21:51
Speaker 5: twenty thirteen that was the case. And I don't want
21:54
Speaker 5: to take your audience all around the world, but I'm
21:56
Speaker 5: a professor by definition, so I have to be propersorial
21:59
Speaker 5: and have to explain. In twenty thirteen, we had the
22:02
Speaker 5: Shelby Versus Holders decision. There they were looking at section
22:06
Speaker 5: four in the formula, what states were covered, and also
22:10
Speaker 5: whether or not we should keep pre clearance, and the
22:13
Speaker 5: Holder decision in twenty thirteen, this is the case out
22:16
Speaker 5: of Alabama style Shelby Versus Holder. The US Supreme Court
22:20
Speaker 5: as a former that's pretty much dead. So Section four
22:25
Speaker 5: they gutted that out of the voter rights deal. Section five,
22:30
Speaker 5: the preclearance. What happened. I grew up in a place
22:33
Speaker 5: called Jackson, Mississippi, and my parents would get up to vote,
22:38
Speaker 5: and normally if they went over to the elementary school
22:42
Speaker 5: where the polling location was supposed to have been. Well,
22:45
Speaker 5: the people in Jackson, Mississippi who ran Hannes County in
22:49
Speaker 5: terms of the election district, they may have moved the
22:52
Speaker 5: polling precincts that was at the elementary school, just to
22:55
Speaker 5: give you example, they may have moved it and put
22:58
Speaker 5: it over at the fire for example. So you had
23:01
Speaker 5: this kind of chicanerby this kind of trickery going on.
23:05
Speaker 5: And Section five was designed to present that if you
23:08
Speaker 5: were under the Covers formula, any change that you made
23:11
Speaker 5: in an election district, whether it was a city council race,
23:15
Speaker 5: state legislative race, or congressional seat, you have to submit
23:19
Speaker 5: it to the United States Justice Department or what we say, Washington,
23:23
Speaker 5: DC or one of the circuit courts in DC for preclearance. Now,
23:28
Speaker 5: twenty thirteen they did away with that. So now many
23:32
Speaker 5: members of the community, the black community and the politicians
23:36
Speaker 5: in particular, they said, well, hey, section two has now
23:40
Speaker 5: been done away with, and we saw justice of Sodomaya.
23:45
Speaker 5: They say, but this is a dead letter now it
23:47
Speaker 5: doesn't really mean anything. So where are we And I'll
23:51
Speaker 5: call it now our land if you want to ask
23:53
Speaker 5: the question. But I do have some suggestions in terms
23:55
Speaker 5: of what's next, what could happen in terms of the
23:59
Speaker 5: battlefield or the ballground, or how Black Americans should try
24:03
Speaker 5: to set the agenda or to go forward. I'll stop
24:07
Speaker 5: if you have a question about what I've said.
24:09
Speaker 6: First of all, we've seen in Louisiana where they delayed,
24:14
Speaker 6: they canceled, they cancel one of the one of the
24:17
Speaker 6: elections the area where a black man won the election.
24:25
Speaker 6: Well they're going back on that. And so we've.
24:31
Speaker 8: Seen how this is already being affected in Louisiana.
24:34
Speaker 5: In Georgia.
24:35
Speaker 6: When you talk about moving the polling precincts, what they
24:39
Speaker 6: did there was whether it was okay when you can
24:43
Speaker 6: go that down seven Houston easy.
24:45
Speaker 8: Used to be able to go right down the street
24:47
Speaker 8: to the church or the school and vote. Well, now
24:51
Speaker 8: they've moved it miles away from the actual places to vote,
24:56
Speaker 8: which denies a lot of people, especially older people, ways
25:01
Speaker 8: of getting to the polls. So we've already seen where
25:05
Speaker 8: these these are, these decisions made by the Supreme Court
25:09
Speaker 8: has already taken effect. U. J. J. L. Greene said,
25:13
Speaker 8: we talked about what's gonna where do we go from here?
25:16
Speaker 8: He's talking about UH.
25:20
Speaker 6: Making some new legislation to to fight the decision of
25:25
Speaker 6: the Supreme Court, and he's also talking protests and that
25:28
Speaker 6: type of thing or what other things they think we
25:32
Speaker 6: might can do.
25:33
Speaker 5: Now, well, let's be clear what happened in Louisiana. What
25:35
Speaker 5: they did. They suspended the primary election. And the primary
25:39
Speaker 5: election was supposed to start within a week from now
25:42
Speaker 5: whatever it was, and so the early voting actually I
25:45
Speaker 5: think we're supposed to start over the weekend. All right,
25:48
Speaker 5: So they suspended the primary. Now you're talking about the
25:51
Speaker 5: election district where Cleo Fields is elected. Now, this was
25:55
Speaker 5: the district that they had under challenge. If you look
25:57
Speaker 5: look at that, that congressional ran from Baden Ruge all
26:01
Speaker 5: the way up to Sreeport, all right, and what was
26:04
Speaker 5: contended here. The people who brought question this some challenge
26:08
Speaker 5: this district said that he was racially gerimandered and certainly
26:14
Speaker 5: the blacks. Cleo Fields, who is a congress person from
26:17
Speaker 5: that district, said no, that is not the case. Well,
26:21
Speaker 5: so what you're saying, they had to switched that. So
26:23
Speaker 5: I just want to be clear to your audience. So
26:25
Speaker 5: they suspended the primary and almost immediately during the morning
26:30
Speaker 5: when the Supreme Court decision, the text mean, the Florida
26:33
Speaker 5: State Legislature was meeting and Desantus and told them to
26:37
Speaker 5: go ahead, and so they immediately started to redraw their
26:41
Speaker 5: district lives. So there will be what I would describe
26:45
Speaker 5: as the political scientists downstream effects. Not only would it
26:50
Speaker 5: impact upon the congressional district, but we will see it
26:53
Speaker 5: with state legislative districts and also commissioners or superboard of
26:57
Speaker 5: supervisors at the county level, and they can all so
27:00
Speaker 5: impact city council races when you draw the lines in
27:04
Speaker 5: a fashion if they're challenged what the Supreme Court said,
27:07
Speaker 5: you can't use race, you can use partisanship, is nothing wrong.
27:12
Speaker 5: If you are a majority democratic legislators say well, hey,
27:15
Speaker 5: I'm just trying to maximize the opportunity to elect district.
27:18
Speaker 5: But you can't say that you're going to create a
27:21
Speaker 5: district that's going to be an opportunity district or a
27:25
Speaker 5: majority district for black people, Hispanics or white people. All Right,
27:29
Speaker 5: you're not supposed to say that. That's basically what the
27:31
Speaker 5: US Supreme Court was saying. So there's a lot of
27:34
Speaker 5: disinformation now. Again to be informative and to drawl upon
27:40
Speaker 5: my processorial background, notwithstanding al Green, what will happen is
27:45
Speaker 5: that there's already a piece of legislation called the John
27:49
Speaker 5: Lewis Voter Act, and so what that would do, what
27:53
Speaker 5: it tried to do, was to address some of the
27:55
Speaker 5: things that happened in twenty thirteen. So what they would
27:58
Speaker 5: have to do now is they want to go to
28:00
Speaker 5: back to the John Lewis piece of legislation. They would
28:04
Speaker 5: have to put more teeth in that piece of legislation
28:07
Speaker 5: to address what happened last week in terms of the
28:10
Speaker 5: watering down of Section two. For example, because there was
28:15
Speaker 5: a test called the Gingles. There was the Thrownberg versus
28:19
Speaker 5: Gingles decision which was decided back in the nineteen eighties
28:22
Speaker 5: dealing with redistricting, and one of the proms is said
28:26
Speaker 5: that there was nothing wrong with creating opportunity districts. If
28:30
Speaker 5: you had a majority of the population, you shouldn't break
28:33
Speaker 5: them up. That's called cracking in terms of the redistricting,
28:37
Speaker 5: and you shouldn't Hoslet Saley just put them into one district.
28:41
Speaker 5: Let's say if you got sixty percent of the eight
28:43
Speaker 5: hundred thousand people that go into these districts that are
28:47
Speaker 5: black people, well you don't want to just put them
28:50
Speaker 5: all there, because you would mitigate the opportunity of them
28:53
Speaker 5: being impacted in another district. I'll use Houston for example.
28:57
Speaker 5: We saw the Nate Congressional District, which was basically there
29:01
Speaker 5: where al Green had represented it for years. We tell
29:04
Speaker 5: of that district actually just cut up and they move
29:07
Speaker 5: most of those Blacks into the eighteen congressional district. Good
29:10
Speaker 5: example of what I'm saying packing. So therefore you see
29:15
Speaker 5: the face off that we will see coming up on
29:17
Speaker 5: May twenty sixth between al Green, who is now the
29:22
Speaker 5: conference person representing the old nineteen district as we know
29:25
Speaker 5: it as the map. We say, oh, now he's going
29:27
Speaker 5: to have to face off against a legacy district in
29:31
Speaker 5: terms of the eighteen congressional district that is being represented
29:34
Speaker 5: by Kristian Menzie. So that's what you would have in
29:37
Speaker 5: terms of margin and the whole civil rights mantra or
29:41
Speaker 5: whatever it is, and buying into the language. Right now,
29:45
Speaker 5: you have about fifty seven members of the Congressional Black
29:49
Speaker 5: Caucus who are in the House and I think three
29:52
Speaker 5: or US Senators. So suddenly you go to see a
29:55
Speaker 5: reduction in that with these plans. If the Republican go back,
29:58
Speaker 5: they're not going to say that we're anthem in these
30:00
Speaker 5: districts on the basis of race, tongue in cheap. They
30:03
Speaker 5: don't have to say anything. They've been doing it all partisans.
30:06
Speaker 5: And you have to remember that the President he picked
30:08
Speaker 5: up the phone last summer and he called his friend
30:12
Speaker 5: Governor Abbott and say, well, hey, I need five seats.
30:15
Speaker 5: And with dispatch, Governor Abbot called the legislature into special session.
30:20
Speaker 5: We had to quarum break and again they came back.
30:23
Speaker 5: Now whether or not they will get those five seats,
30:25
Speaker 5: I'm a political siences by training, looking at what we've
30:28
Speaker 5: seen and looking at the polling numbers of the president
30:31
Speaker 5: and he's underwater, very unpopular, So we don't know what happened.
30:35
Speaker 5: We saw the tremendous turnout of the increase turnout going
30:39
Speaker 5: back to the Marks third primary, and I think some
30:43
Speaker 5: of that was because Jasmine Crockett was there in terms
30:47
Speaker 5: of black people got off the couch and whatever will
30:49
Speaker 5: that happen again? Will Democrats will be able? And also
30:53
Speaker 5: we had Pitt for tatmy district. California passed a referenda,
30:58
Speaker 5: an initiative said that hey they could change days. They've
31:00
Speaker 5: changed their mass. We see New York and some of
31:03
Speaker 5: the know in the states. Mid decade, redistricting was unheard
31:07
Speaker 5: of because the US Constitution says in Article one, which
31:11
Speaker 5: addresses the Congress, then the lines should be redrawn on
31:14
Speaker 5: a that citio basis that means every ten years. But
31:18
Speaker 5: they've been doing it. You can do redistricting whatever you
31:20
Speaker 5: want to, as the Congress will say. Now, so the
31:23
Speaker 5: state legislative bodies are doing it. They did it mid decade.
31:27
Speaker 5: This is the middle of a decade. We didn't wait
31:29
Speaker 5: until the census. That's what it's supposed to. Wait until
31:31
Speaker 5: the censors come in every ten years. That's when we
31:34
Speaker 5: count the people and you go back and you account
31:37
Speaker 5: for population changes or shifts in the district.
31:40
Speaker 7: To add insult to injury, the US Supreme Court issued
31:44
Speaker 7: an order to the plane off Louisiana to fast track
31:47
Speaker 7: the court's opinion so states can implement their plans and
31:50
Speaker 7: redraw the district boundaries to gain more wins prior to
31:55
Speaker 7: the midterms. This is after in Louisiana have already been
32:00
Speaker 7: over forty thousand early votes cast. They're going to throw
32:05
Speaker 7: those out, including votes from military overseas. Congressman Benny G.
32:10
Speaker 7: Thompson was in Houston as a ranking member of the
32:13
Speaker 7: Homeland Security Committee and the Task Force on Enhancing Security
32:17
Speaker 7: for Special Events in the United States. He along with
32:21
Speaker 7: local Congressman Al Green, were touring the city to see
32:24
Speaker 7: how secure Houston is for the upcoming Men's FIFA World Cup.
32:28
Speaker 7: The People's News asked about Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE
32:33
Speaker 7: and their involvement with this World Cup. People are afraid
32:37
Speaker 7: of being snatched up and deported by ICE, and thousands
32:41
Speaker 7: of people who were going to attend the World Cup
32:44
Speaker 7: are staying home.
32:46
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for both of your questions. Asked to
32:48
Speaker 3: the first question.
32:49
Speaker 9: In terms of having an integrated event, we have heard
32:55
Speaker 9: that there would be opportunities for people to celebrate and
32:59
Speaker 9: appreciate each other and that we will have security available.
33:03
Speaker 9: But more important than that, it's important to note that
33:07
Speaker 9: this is not the first time people have congregated in
33:10
Speaker 9: this fashion, and while there may be some disturbances, our
33:14
Speaker 9: people are telling us that they are prepared for these disturbances.
33:18
Speaker 9: I have had the opportunity to meet just recently with
33:22
Speaker 9: the classified briefing of Members of Congress with the FBI
33:26
Speaker 9: and some other agencies, and I did ask questions about
33:30
Speaker 9: how they are monitoring things on the ground, and they
33:33
Speaker 9: told me that the agent in charge here is going
33:37
Speaker 9: to have a hands on experience with assuring us that
33:40
Speaker 9: things are going to go well. But even in the
33:43
Speaker 9: best of circumstances, things happen, and there appears to be
33:47
Speaker 9: a team of people ready to respond to emergencies when
33:51
Speaker 9: they occur. There seems to be cooperation between various agencies.
33:55
Speaker 9: There's interoperability such that they can communicate with each other.
34:00
Speaker 9: These are the things that they're putting in place and
34:01
Speaker 9: quite frankly, seem to have in place for this event.
34:04
Speaker 9: And with reference to your second question, if you will
34:08
Speaker 9: restated again please.
34:13
Speaker 5: Ice.
34:13
Speaker 9: Yes. Yeah, we've been quizzed and we've questioned as it
34:21
Speaker 9: relates to Ice coming into the city. We don't have
34:24
Speaker 9: a definitive answer at this time, but I assure you
34:28
Speaker 9: that this is something that is a concern to us
34:31
Speaker 9: and we want to do as much as we can
34:33
Speaker 9: to protect people who may find themselves in some sort
34:37
Speaker 9: of circumstance with ICE or any other entity. We want
34:41
Speaker 9: to make sure people are respected. I'm protected. I assure
34:44
Speaker 9: you that's my goal, and I'm going to do the
34:46
Speaker 9: very best that I can. But I also have someone
34:49
Speaker 9: here who is quite a depth answering questions of this type,
34:54
Speaker 9: and I invite the Chairdren to take the microphone.
35:00
Speaker 3: Some great answer to the question. We act specifically of
35:03
Speaker 3: the officials today.
35:06
Speaker 10: What we'd heard also about ICE's conduct and potential actions here,
35:14
Speaker 10: we were assured that those actions would not be encouraged,
35:21
Speaker 10: and so from our advantage point, the rumors are the rumors,
35:26
Speaker 10: but we've talked to people who are talking to Ice.
35:30
Speaker 10: I would hope that Ice would not walk the streets
35:34
Speaker 10: with masks on. I would hope that ICE would have
35:38
Speaker 10: identification on them. I hope that ICE would have cameras
35:44
Speaker 10: on their bodies.
35:46
Speaker 11: If they're in the area, and as every other law
35:51
Speaker 11: enforcement official would. And you know, we are on display
35:56
Speaker 11: all over the world with these games and were Paul
36:01
Speaker 11: and Ice should participate in making sure that that occurs.
36:10
Speaker 1: HI, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the
36:13
Speaker 1: People's News. If you have a story that needs to
36:16
Speaker 1: be told, come to us. We accept fully produced audio,
36:20
Speaker 1: written material, or just give us the idea and we
36:24
Speaker 1: will run with it. Shiny new one hour episodes of
36:27
Speaker 1: The People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News
36:31
Speaker 1: podcast hosted by Speaker dot com and linked to my
36:35
Speaker 1: website Gallington dot com. A child in the Sunnyside area
36:40
Speaker 1: of Houston Southside was denied access to use a restroom
36:44
Speaker 1: and was told to go outside and defecate on the
36:47
Speaker 1: wall of the building. The fuel Depot gas station on
36:51
Speaker 1: Belford Avenue is a brand new facility with brand new restrooms.
36:56
Speaker 1: The worker was said to have videotape the child and
36:59
Speaker 1: shared it for others to see. Kwanell X, leader of
37:03
Speaker 1: the New Black Panther Party Nation, spoke to the People's
37:07
Speaker 1: News about the situation.
37:10
Speaker 12: Thank you for having me on your show this morning.
37:11
Speaker 5: Brother.
37:12
Speaker 12: It is a privilege and the honor to be on
37:14
Speaker 12: your airways with your listening audience, to bring the audience
37:18
Speaker 12: up to speed and to give them into the details
37:20
Speaker 12: of what took place in southeast Houston. In the historical
37:24
Speaker 12: Sunnyside community. There's a brand new store that was built
37:28
Speaker 12: called a Few Depots that's been built with in the
37:30
Speaker 12: last year. It is owned by some Indian individuals and
37:34
Speaker 12: one day a young man coming from school having a
37:38
Speaker 12: medical situation coming from school, needed to use the restroom.
37:43
Speaker 12: He stopped by the store. The young thirteen year old
37:46
Speaker 12: kids and said, can I use the restroom? They told
37:49
Speaker 12: him no. In spite of having brand new restrooms for
37:53
Speaker 12: men and women, restums were not being cleaned. They were
37:56
Speaker 12: not both in the shutdown. They were brand news. And
38:00
Speaker 12: he told him no. He said, sir, it's an emergency.
38:03
Speaker 12: I'm fit for at least he's a restaurant. He said no,
38:06
Speaker 12: because I don't want you to steal anything, and then
38:09
Speaker 12: told the little boy to go outside and use it
38:11
Speaker 12: on the side of the building. That's what he told him.
38:13
Speaker 12: So the young boy goes outside on the side of
38:16
Speaker 12: the building and does the number two on the side
38:19
Speaker 12: of the building. Then the young boy fits down and
38:24
Speaker 12: wipes his butt on the grass, because you have nothing
38:28
Speaker 12: like to wipe himself with. The store clerk then records
38:33
Speaker 12: he's recording everything. He takes a still picture of a
38:38
Speaker 12: young boy poo poing on the side of the ground
38:41
Speaker 12: and begins to take the picture on the front door
38:45
Speaker 12: of the store. Then when his fellows stealing get out
38:49
Speaker 12: of school that evening, he takes the video and puts
38:53
Speaker 12: it on his phone, and then it's showing the kids
38:57
Speaker 12: coming from the school. The video of the young boy
39:00
Speaker 12: pooping on the ground, making fun of the young black
39:06
Speaker 12: brothers Genitalia. So all of the kids they take their videos,
39:11
Speaker 12: start taking copies of the video from the man in
39:14
Speaker 12: the store, and they started posting it. The young man
39:16
Speaker 12: in return started getting bullied, embarrassed, harassed, and this store owner,
39:22
Speaker 12: not from our community, making so little of our children
39:26
Speaker 12: having a medical emergency, coming from school early because of
39:29
Speaker 12: the emergency, forces him to poop pool on the ground
39:33
Speaker 12: while there's no one in the restroom. They're cleaning and
39:36
Speaker 12: brand new, not out of order, not being cleaned, they
39:40
Speaker 12: available and made that child poop on the ground so
39:43
Speaker 12: he could take the opportunity to record him, to make
39:47
Speaker 12: mockery of him, and to crack jokes about the child.
39:50
Speaker 6: What are the details of the outcome, because the district
39:54
Speaker 6: attorney or somebody should be.
39:57
Speaker 12: City leaders should be saying something about this. The grandmother
40:01
Speaker 12: has made police reports and as if yesterday they opened
40:05
Speaker 12: up an investigation. The store owner assured us that the
40:09
Speaker 12: employee is fired and will not be allowed to return.
40:12
Speaker 12: And we also said and that we wanted more than that.
40:16
Speaker 12: We wanted an apology to the community, which the store
40:18
Speaker 12: on agreed to give. Secondly, with the manager, the District
40:23
Speaker 12: attorney's office, treat this gentleman the same way you would
40:26
Speaker 12: treat anyone else who traffic in videos showing neickeed children.
40:31
Speaker 12: You cannot share videos of naked children. That is a crime,
40:36
Speaker 12: and we want those same laws applied to this Indian
40:39
Speaker 12: store worker who have vivo respect for Black people and
40:43
Speaker 12: black children. We did shut the store down for over
40:47
Speaker 12: an hour. For over an hour, they sold no dads,
40:51
Speaker 12: didn't sell no cigarettes, no deal, not a piece of candy.
40:54
Speaker 12: It didn't sell anything. We wanted to shut it down
40:57
Speaker 12: instead the message and we successfully set it down for
40:59
Speaker 12: one hour. That was our goal and I was all
41:01
Speaker 12: playing to shut it down for one hour, and we
41:04
Speaker 12: did that. And we're demanding that law enforcement treat the
41:07
Speaker 12: case with the sensitivity and priority that it deserves and
41:11
Speaker 12: to send the message to all other business owners who
41:14
Speaker 12: think that you could do something like this at any
41:16
Speaker 12: human beings. You think you could do something like this
41:18
Speaker 12: to a child and lead and get away with it.
41:20
Speaker 12: We all black people must have a devo tolerance for
41:24
Speaker 12: those in our community who are nothing more of ancredators.
41:28
Speaker 12: Praying on all the children under the guys that store
41:30
Speaker 12: owners teachers city workers, men and women in the community,
41:34
Speaker 12: or even family members. Enough is enough. Our babies are sacred,
41:39
Speaker 12: and if our children are not sacred and protected, then
41:42
Speaker 12: what kind of men are we in our community?
41:45
Speaker 3: What is it?
41:46
Speaker 6: Because this seems like any other time they would say
41:49
Speaker 6: it with the child pornography, you know, because if he's,
41:52
Speaker 6: if he's if he's showing it to other people, then you.
41:55
Speaker 12: Know that's that's that.
41:57
Speaker 6: I'm not a lawyer, but you know that's our would
42:00
Speaker 6: assume that, you know, some type of charges would be
42:02
Speaker 6: filed against that general and what's what stopping that gas
42:06
Speaker 6: station on us from checking and sending that employee to
42:09
Speaker 6: another store in somebody else's community.
42:12
Speaker 12: We assured him that if we ever saw him an
42:15
Speaker 12: end the store in our community, well then we would
42:19
Speaker 12: do what it's necessary to shut it down. Now, if
42:21
Speaker 12: he goes to a store in another community, somebody would
42:24
Speaker 12: have to bring that to our attention, and we're more
42:26
Speaker 12: than have to get involved there also if they don't
42:29
Speaker 12: do it themselves. But the bottom line is, brother, we
42:32
Speaker 12: have to send the message our children's sacred and we
42:34
Speaker 12: will not tolerate such dehumanized and disrespect of our babies.
42:37
Speaker 12: That's not want to happen.
42:40
Speaker 6: This is not the first time that you know, we've had,
42:43
Speaker 6: you know, places like these gas stations treating people, especially
42:48
Speaker 6: Black people, like second class.
42:50
Speaker 12: Citizens in their own community. Well, the reason why this
42:54
Speaker 12: continues to happen better is because one thing they honorable
42:57
Speaker 12: Minister Little Fartime, caught up that these type of activities
43:01
Speaker 12: and behaviors of outsiders within our community. It only flourishes
43:06
Speaker 12: among a community where people look like they don't love
43:08
Speaker 12: one another. When there's a lack of love for self
43:11
Speaker 12: and lack of love for one another, this type of
43:14
Speaker 12: exploitation and abuse of our children can take place until
43:18
Speaker 12: we blite people fall in love with one another. No
43:21
Speaker 12: outsider would dad come into our community under any capacity
43:26
Speaker 12: and commit any crime or do any harm to a
43:29
Speaker 12: member of our community. Espress love with children because he
43:32
Speaker 12: knows and they would know that this community is in
43:35
Speaker 12: love with themselves. They have zero tolerance, and there'll be
43:37
Speaker 12: an immediate repercussion and there'll be an immediate response and
43:41
Speaker 12: consequences will flow quickly if we do something like this.
43:44
Speaker 13: But that's not where we.
43:45
Speaker 12: Are in the Black community. We should be owning our
43:49
Speaker 12: own gas stations. The day have to come, well, we
43:53
Speaker 12: shut down that gas station because we got black gas
43:56
Speaker 12: stations to direct our people too. If we don't like
44:00
Speaker 12: way a foreigner is treating us at their particular business,
44:03
Speaker 12: where then they should be an equal black owned business
44:06
Speaker 12: somewhere in the area that we can point and direct
44:09
Speaker 12: our people too.
44:11
Speaker 5: Well.
44:11
Speaker 12: Continue this level of disrespect because we are not producing
44:16
Speaker 12: for ourselves the adequate things that we need to survive
44:21
Speaker 12: at the coumnitry. So outsiders come in and provided for us,
44:25
Speaker 12: and they look at us as dests and unproductive men
44:28
Speaker 12: and women, so they think they can treat us. Heai,
44:30
Speaker 12: they want to treat us because by the behavior of
44:32
Speaker 12: some of us, they try to judge all of us.
44:35
Speaker 12: But that's not going to happen. Not why I have
44:37
Speaker 12: breath in my lung and they go unchecked.
44:41
Speaker 13: All right, one more question.
44:44
Speaker 6: I just got to get your thoughts on this whole
44:45
Speaker 6: Supreme Court decision yesterday taking on your voting rights.
44:51
Speaker 12: The honorable life to the Hermit said in the nineteen
44:53
Speaker 12: sixties that the signing of the Civil Rights Act was
44:59
Speaker 12: nothing more than that hypocritical trick. He said, the same
45:03
Speaker 12: man that has the power to give you a law
45:06
Speaker 12: has the power to take it back, and that when
45:09
Speaker 12: we were celebrating the Civil Rights Act, he said it
45:13
Speaker 12: was a hypocritical trick and looked in twenty twenty six,
45:18
Speaker 12: he has bad witness. He spoke the truth that the
45:22
Speaker 12: same white government that wrote in the Civil Rights men
45:26
Speaker 12: say act for us as black people, for the civil
45:28
Speaker 12: rights movement, has now literally crushed it and crippled it
45:32
Speaker 12: to what's no longer effected for black people. And we're
45:34
Speaker 12: now losing Black congressional perspective will lose even more until
45:39
Speaker 12: we as a people come together collectively and you might
45:45
Speaker 12: the Honorable Minisulrt. As far as con Sid's teaching, the
45:47
Speaker 12: message of Mohammad taught him that our unity is more
45:51
Speaker 12: powerful than the nuclear bombs. The unity of black people
45:55
Speaker 12: is more powerful than an atomic bomb.
45:58
Speaker 14: What we lack.
46:00
Speaker 12: Is not the energy to complain. We got plenty of
46:04
Speaker 12: energies to fact. We don't lack your resources. We got
46:08
Speaker 12: plenty of resources for fact. What we lack is a
46:12
Speaker 12: common agenda that black people could you might around pull
46:17
Speaker 12: off resources in unity and give to our people what
46:22
Speaker 12: we're begging somebody else to give to us. Because if
46:25
Speaker 12: we were truly united as a people then you're not
46:27
Speaker 12: a Supreme court. Your Supreme Court would not make that
46:30
Speaker 12: type of decision because Black people financially are the tenth
46:35
Speaker 12: regislation on Earth with the money we make and the
46:38
Speaker 12: money we spend in America. With that type of economic power,
46:42
Speaker 12: we could shut America completely down until we exhibit and
46:47
Speaker 12: demonstrate the power of that reality. Through unity, these things
46:52
Speaker 12: that we're still fighting today, that we've historically been fighting
46:56
Speaker 12: will continue now.
46:58
Speaker 1: Was Kwantell X, leader of the New Black Panther Party Nation.
47:01
Speaker 1: As of Sunday, HPDE is investigating the incident and the
47:05
Speaker 1: worker has not been seen at the store. Former HISD
47:10
Speaker 1: teacher for twenty five years and president of the Houston
47:13
Speaker 1: Education Association, Michelle Williams was fired by Houston is D's
47:19
Speaker 1: state appointed Board of Managers when they voted again to
47:23
Speaker 1: terminate her contract at Benbrook Elementary despite an independent examiner's
47:30
Speaker 1: recommendation to reinstate her. She was fired for not teaching
47:34
Speaker 1: to the plans set out by the board. We talked
47:38
Speaker 1: to her about the decision.
47:40
Speaker 14: So what happened when I was put at Leaves in
47:45
Speaker 14: August of twenty twenty five for really some fause allegations.
47:53
Speaker 14: They said I left the building without telling anyone for
47:58
Speaker 14: green and hearing, and then they said I was then subordinate,
48:03
Speaker 14: wouldn't implement the HISD model. NESM is some discrepancies in that,
48:09
Speaker 14: but that was what they were alleging that I did.
48:15
Speaker 14: So I have been on lease since August twenty twenty five,
48:19
Speaker 14: the twenty seventh, August twenty seventh, twenty five, and I
48:23
Speaker 14: had my hearing with the Independent Hearing Examiner.
48:28
Speaker 13: On February third and four.
48:31
Speaker 14: On the third, HID presented its case and then on
48:35
Speaker 14: the fourth we presented our case, and the Independent Examiner
48:41
Speaker 14: found that HID did not prove its case with a
48:48
Speaker 14: preponderance of evidence. So as a matter of fact, she
48:53
Speaker 14: said that they didn't prove any of them at all,
48:57
Speaker 14: and that I was a credible witness and that I
49:00
Speaker 14: had served HID faithfully and to the great benefit of
49:05
Speaker 14: the teachers and students. So that came out February twenty
49:12
Speaker 14: seventh from the Independent Hearing Examiner, which THA assigns. Now
49:18
Speaker 14: we're talking about THA. So the process is that it
49:22
Speaker 14: goes back to the board for consideration. They can approve, deny,
49:29
Speaker 14: or modify. Well, the Independent Hearing Examiner also found that
49:36
Speaker 14: I had implemented the curriculum according to the law so
49:41
Speaker 14: that it complied with law, because I had special education
49:44
Speaker 14: students and I had emergent bi lingual students, and they were,
49:49
Speaker 14: you know, they have accommodations, and they have requirements under
49:53
Speaker 14: the Texas Education Code, and then we have teaching standards
49:57
Speaker 14: that we're supposed to follow two d under Mike Miles.
50:01
Speaker 14: They're not following any of that. And you know, they
50:05
Speaker 14: were telling I had one of the assistant principles tell
50:08
Speaker 14: me that there was not any time to teach the
50:11
Speaker 14: children how to read because they were transitioning from bilingual ED.
50:15
Speaker 14: And I told them that these kids can't read these passages,
50:19
Speaker 14: and they basically wanted me to give those passages to
50:22
Speaker 14: those students even though they couldn't read them. And I
50:24
Speaker 14: wasn't going to do that. What they were doing was
50:26
Speaker 14: illegal and unethical.
50:28
Speaker 4: And after hearing.
50:31
Speaker 14: Hid, they said that I was supposed to follow the
50:36
Speaker 14: directives and no disregarding that what they were telling me
50:43
Speaker 14: to do was illegal.
50:46
Speaker 7: And we proved.
50:49
Speaker 14: With evidence that that's what was taking place. I had
50:52
Speaker 14: teachers to testify. So the district's position on last Thursday
50:58
Speaker 14: was there I was supposed to comply with our lawful
51:01
Speaker 14: directives and they chose to terminate my contract.
51:07
Speaker 6: What happens now, it's a lot of things in that,
51:10
Speaker 6: primarily the fact that you're teaching specially at special education kids,
51:16
Speaker 6: and it's a certain way. You can't just go by
51:18
Speaker 6: a guide book to teach to teach special education kids.
51:23
Speaker 13: And they're trying to say that that's my opinion is wrong. Yes,
51:28
Speaker 13: that's what they were saying.
51:30
Speaker 14: So we have special populations, we have gifted and talented.
51:34
Speaker 14: We have emerging bilingual students that are learning English, which
51:39
Speaker 14: chapter seventy four of the Education Code, I think it
51:42
Speaker 14: is seventy four point four governings emergent my lingual students.
51:47
Speaker 14: So we're supposed to help them learn and transition to English.
51:51
Speaker 14: We're not supposed to dump them in there. And that's
51:53
Speaker 14: what Mike Miles is actually doing and talent teachers to do.
51:57
Speaker 14: I've been teaching twenty six years and never in my
52:00
Speaker 14: life have I ever had anyone tell me to break
52:03
Speaker 14: the law.
52:04
Speaker 13: And I wasn't going to do it.
52:06
Speaker 14: I just I'm not and especially education students. I filed
52:10
Speaker 14: two complaints with t A and both of them were
52:13
Speaker 14: substantiated that they were not implementing the student's i ts.
52:17
Speaker 13: How do I know because I was there, so.
52:22
Speaker 6: You know they are.
52:24
Speaker 14: You know, they don't want to follow law, and I'm
52:28
Speaker 14: not going.
52:29
Speaker 13: To be a part of that.
52:30
Speaker 14: First of all, I have to sleep at night. These
52:32
Speaker 14: are children's lives that we're affecting, and I'm not going
52:36
Speaker 14: to be a part of that.
52:38
Speaker 6: What who's do they have any type of not guidelines
52:44
Speaker 6: but the board to make a decision.
52:47
Speaker 13: But who's t A is over the board?
52:51
Speaker 6: So if they're breaking the rules and t A is
52:55
Speaker 6: not not monitoring, will not force them to go grow
53:00
Speaker 6: by the law. Who's the stopping from doing anything?
53:04
Speaker 13: Well, that's where I come in with.
53:08
Speaker 14: The courts would have to stop them, But it takes
53:12
Speaker 14: teachers to stand up and say that it is wrong.
53:18
Speaker 14: But you know, there's not a lot of people that
53:20
Speaker 14: are going to do that. I just wasn't willing to
53:23
Speaker 14: have my certification put online for that and my reputation
53:28
Speaker 14: as a teacher. And because what can happen is if
53:33
Speaker 14: you don't implement students IEPs, the district can come back
53:36
Speaker 14: and say you're not doing it, and if your word
53:38
Speaker 14: against theirs, but they told you to do that, But
53:41
Speaker 14: you can't plead ignorance of the law. When teachers signed
53:45
Speaker 14: an IEP for a student, that's a legal and binding
53:49
Speaker 14: contracts saying that you're going to implement these accommodations as written.
53:56
Speaker 13: And there's no other alternative for that. It seems like
54:00
Speaker 13: they were targeting you just you know, just in general
54:05
Speaker 13: because of the Yeah, they were targeting me and in
54:10
Speaker 13: my first thing, because this is.
54:12
Speaker 12: The second termination hearing.
54:13
Speaker 13: This is not the first. This is number two.
54:16
Speaker 14: They attempted to now renew my contract in March twenty
54:21
Speaker 14: twenty four. That was the first attempt and I won.
54:24
Speaker 14: Then this is the second time I've won against hr C,
54:28
Speaker 14: and this, to me, this is more egregious. The first
54:32
Speaker 14: one was them just lying saying that my students wasn't
54:35
Speaker 14: making progress, and you know, Mike MOUs beating his chest
54:40
Speaker 14: because I wouldn't get off of social media. That's really
54:42
Speaker 14: what that was about. He thought that he could make
54:45
Speaker 14: me get off social media and I was not. But
54:49
Speaker 14: in that first termination, we had a grievance combined with retaliation,
54:58
Speaker 14: and they found that the district had already have retaliated
55:03
Speaker 14: against me.
55:05
Speaker 13: So that's in the first termination here. So AHISV under
55:09
Speaker 13: Mike Miles.
55:10
Speaker 14: We have a long history because he does not want
55:14
Speaker 14: to find a law. And here's what I'm trying to
55:17
Speaker 14: explain to educators, more specifically black and Hispanic educators. They
55:25
Speaker 14: are creating a system of having have not on the
55:30
Speaker 14: backs of black and Hispanic educators. And then when the
55:34
Speaker 14: system is created, guess who's not going to be employed.
55:37
Speaker 14: It's not black and Hispanic teachers. Because they're effectively trying
55:42
Speaker 14: to roll back bilingual support. They don't want to teach
55:47
Speaker 14: black kids at all, so you know, and unfortunately there's
55:53
Speaker 14: very few people that will stand up. That's why they're
55:56
Speaker 14: taking over our school districts. But ACHISV was the exp
56:00
Speaker 14: and I tried to tell everybody that if we don't
56:04
Speaker 14: stop it in Houston, it's going to spread out.
56:07
Speaker 13: And that's what we're seeing today. What happens for you
56:11
Speaker 13: in your future if you have any plans to go
56:15
Speaker 13: to a little.
56:15
Speaker 14: District or absolutely not. I'm running for a state representative
56:20
Speaker 14: and I'm focused on on my campaign right now, and
56:25
Speaker 14: because in order for this unlawfulness to stop, we have
56:30
Speaker 14: to be policymakers. And that's what I'm focusing on right now.
56:36
Speaker 14: I'm going to leave the fight and appeals or whatever
56:42
Speaker 14: legal appeals that I have available to me to my attorney,
56:48
Speaker 14: and I'm going to focus on winning this seat for
56:51
Speaker 14: in the November election.
56:53
Speaker 1: That was Michelle Williams, former HISD teacher, fired by the
56:57
Speaker 1: Houston ISD State appointed of Managers. The People's News is
57:04
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57:55
Speaker 5: Thank you