Actor Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X
on Feb. 27, 1965. It was a strong statement of support for the life
of a man whom controversy followed until his assassination at the
age of 39. So why did Davis potentially risk his career to pay
tribute to Malcolm X? A letter, written by Davis, explains his
decision. The letter will be on public display this weekend.
Davis’ letter will join dozens of other historic artifacts for a
special Black History Month observation, sponsored by the 100 Black
Men of Valdosta Inc. The Sixth Annual African-American Artifacts
exhibit will be on display noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb.
25 and 26.
Kind of weird phrasing there, Ms. Editor, given that Ossie Davis’ tribute
was after Malcolm X was assassinated….
Here’s something from the Industrial Authority that never happened before.
The first person I saw going into the
State Legislative Luncheon
yesterday was Andrea Schruijer,
Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
She spotted me inside, and said “I want to apologize”.
Surprised, I asked for what?
She said for
the date of VLCIA’s Tuesday meeting being unclear.
She said she had read about that in this blog that same morning.
She said they had recently changed the way they were handling their
web pages and hadn’t yet figured out how to update it correctly.
Since I was never very impressed with how it was handled before,
I readily accepted that as a good excuse.
I look forward to the updates.
I’m guessing the new PR and marketing person they’re hiring will take care of this.
She also volunteered that they did inform the VDT and it was in the
VDT’s calendar.
I agreed that that was so; we had checked, and it appears the meeting
was legal because of those notices.
She also said she thought she had said Monday evening, “see you tomorrow.”
I allowed as how if she did, I missed it.
In any case, I have to say that her predecessor would never have made
that much effort to make amends to a mere blogger.
Once again,
tiny LAKE is flattered by mighty VLCIA,
although in a more positive way this time.
The VDT has a story this morning about an Industrial Authority meeting
last night,
Two new industries announced
by Kay Harris.
That’s a bit of a surprise, since they didn’t have that date on their
own web page and they didn’t post an agenda.
Also, I saw both VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer
and their Chairman Roy Copeland speak Monday night, and neither
of them said a word about their meeting date being changed to the
next night.
Here’s some irony in the VDT’s story:
Schruijer also discussed the Authority’s plans to move ahead with the
Strategic Planning Process right after the first of the year. Following
the Community Assessment which was conducted over the summer, the next
phase is a full fledged commitment to begin the planning process.
The intention, according to Schruijer and Copeland, is to include
community partners in the process as the assessment showed that many
in the community think that the various entities work at odds with
each other, rather than on the same page, when it comes to economic
development.
Two attorneys brought a point into the light that CUEE doesn’t like to talk about:
bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation.
That was stated by the attorney for the Lowndes County School System,
Warren Turner, 4 October 2011.
Roy Copeland brought up some names from the past: Mrs. Copeland
or Mrs. Adams, and the newscasters Huntley and Brinkley.
He then asked about the consent decree on desegregation from back in that era:
Has anyone given any thoughts to the issues relative to the consentdecreee,
desegregation, and the realignment of school districts relative to
the Voting Rights Act 1965 preclearance, and all those other issues.
Lowndes County Schools Attorney Warren Turner answered the question,
after Roy Copeland mentioned they were neighbors.
The answer was basically that there would be a hearing before November 8th.
Hm, I wonder what happened with that?
As far as what happens if consolidation is approved by the Valdosta voters,
he said, among other things:
So the concept of a neighborhood school, where everybody stays where they are,
is not going to happen in my opinion, because the federal government is
not going to allow that to happen.
We’re here to protest the building of the biomass plant.
We think it’s ill-conceived to contaminate our air.
Our children, retirees, all sorts of folks….
Ill-conceived to contaminate our air –Barry Z. Hyatt @ VLCIA 19 April 2011
Biomass protesters,
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
Brad Lofton Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 April 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
“It’s forthcoming. I can’t tell you anything because quite frankly,
lawyers have their own schedules. I literally do not know specific
details because I’m not privy to that information as of this moment.”
Well, it’s good to know somebody’s in charge at the Authority.
These videos are not all labeled, which is unfortunate,
since some of them reflect quite well on some things the
Industrial Authority is doing.
But after all, they have paid staff who could be taking,
labelling, and posting their own videos, and
their new executive director says she wants transparency,
so who knows? Maybe VLCIA will do this kind of thing themselves.
They meet again tonight. You could go ask them.
Irregular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 June 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Leigh Touchton, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP,
says the local and state NAACP are opposed to the biomass plant
because the community that is most affected is the minority community.
She referred to her previous presentation of a letter from
Dr. Robert D. Bullard.
She also brought up an incident with Brad Lofton and recommended
that VLCIA hire an executive director who wouldn’t act like that.
And she said she deals with VSEB all the time:
I’ve taken men through there, I’ve signed them up.
She referred to me when she said that, so what I said before
is appended after the video.
The health of the community is way more important than the job —Leigh Touchton
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
What I actually recommended regarding VSEB, in response to
a specific request from Leigh Touchton for recommendations,
was maybe schedule a meeting with Roy Copeland to talk about
VSEB and solar job opportunities:Continue reading →
Karen Noll asked the VLCIA board to put a no-biomass clause
in any purchase agreement regarding the proposed biomass site.
She began with these words:
I’m Karen Noll.
I hope some of you already have seen my writing and
have read my letters to you in the past.
I’m obviously here on one issue.
I hope that in the future I can be talking to you about other issues.
But right now I’m talking to you about biomass.
And we celebrated that it was dead and it was gone and now it’s not.
Because we really don’t know … what the plan is.
Karen Noll made a pitch based partly on saving taxpayer money.
In addressing health concerns, she handed the board a letter from local doctor
Craig Bishop.
She handed the board a petition with “at least 700 signatures”
and she said for each signature there was probably at least one more
that didn’t sign.
Some of what she said appeared to be drawn from a letter
that is appended in this post after the video.
on Feb. 27, 1965. It was a strong statement of support for the life of a man whom controversy followed until his assassination at the age of 39. So why did Davis potentially risk his career to pay tribute to Malcolm X? A letter, written by Davis, explains his decision. The letter will be on public display this weekend.
Kind of weird phrasing there, Ms. Editor, given that Ossie Davis’ tribute
was after Malcolm X was assassinated….
