John Payton, Key Lawyer in Defense of Affirmative Action at Michigan, Dies

The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 23, 2012, 5:47 pm

John Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, died on Thursday at the age of 65 after a brief illness. Among his work as a civil-rights lawyer, Mr. Payton defended the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action policy, arguing the Gratz v. Bollinger case, involving the university’s undergraduate admissions policy, before the Supreme Court. The court ruled against the university in that 2003 case. But, in a companion case involving the university’s law school, it upheld the use of affirmative action in college admissions when policies are narrowly tailored to achieve educational benefits that flow from diversity. Just last month, however, the court agreed to hear another case, Fisher v. Texas, that some experts say may result in the demise of racial-conscious college admissions.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/john-payton-key-lawyer-in-defense-of-affirmative-action-at-michigan-dies/41679

New Jersey congressman Donald Payne dies at age 77

AT&T Yahoo News
Reuters – 4 hrs ago

Reuters) - Representative Donald Payne, 77, New Jersey's first and only African-American congressman, died on Tuesday after battling colon cancer, his brother said.

Payne, a Democrat elected in 1988 to represent northeastern New Jersey, died of complications of colon cancer early Tuesday morning at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, said William Payne, his brother and a former New Jersey Assemblyman.

"His legacy in Congress will be that he served the small man," William Payne said. "Although he walked among kings, he never lost the common touch. He was concerned about people who needed food stamps."

Full Story: http://news.yahoo.com/jersey-congressman-donald-payne-dies-age-77-154217725.html

Robert L. Carter, an Architect of School Desegregation, Dies at 94

The New York Times
By ROY REED
Published: January 3, 2012

Robert L. Carter, a former federal judge in New York who, as a lawyer, was a leading strategist and a persuasive voice in the legal assault on racial segregation in 20th-century America, died on Tuesday morning in Manhattan. He was 94.
The cause was complications of a stroke, said his son John W. Carter, a justice of the New York Supreme Court in the Bronx.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/nyregion/robert-l-carter-judge-and-desegregation-strategist-dies-at-94.html?_r=1&hpw=&pagewanted=all

Vincent H. Cohen, prominent D.C. lawyer, dies at 75

The Washington Post
By Matt Schudel, Published: December 31

Vincent H. Cohen, a prominent lawyer who worked at the Justice Department and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before becoming the first African American partner at his Washington law firm, died Dec. 25 at Washington Hospital Center. He was 75 and had a pulmonary embolism, his daughter Robyn Cohen Hudson said.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/vincent-h-cohen-prominent-dc-lawyer-dies-at-75/2011/12/31/gIQA3up2SP_story.html?socialreader_check=0&denied=1

Former College Trustee Heyman ‘51 dies at 81

theDartmouth.com
By Lindsay Ellis
Published on Monday, November 28, 2011

Ira Michael Heyman ’51, a former member of the Board of Trustees who triumphed affirmative action while serving as Chancellor for University of California, Berkeley from 1980 to 1990, died due to complications from emphysema in his Berkeley home on Nov. 19, according to his son, James Heyman. He was 81 years old.
Heyman, who also served as the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was highly-regarded at Berkeley because of his intellect and concentration on community issues, John Cummins, Berkeley’s former associate chancellor and Heyman’s chief of staff, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
“He had the ability to bring people together around issues and work for solutions that weren’t always popular but were ahead of his time,” Cummins said.
Heyman helped develop Berkeley’s affirmative action policy, according to Cummins. During Heyman’s time at Berkeley, the number of undergraduate students of color rose from 21 to 57 percent, according to his faculty profile on the university’s website.

Full Story: http://thedartmouth.com/2011/11/28/news/heyman

Statement by the President on the Passing of Civil Rights Leader Fred Shuttleswo

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 05, 2011

Statement by the President on the Passing of Civil Rights Leader Fred Shuttlesworth

Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth today. As one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Reverend Shuttlesworth dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for all Americans. He was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. And today we stand on his shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who marched and sat and lifted their voices to help perfect our union.

I will never forget having the opportunity several years ago to push Reverend Shuttlesworth in his wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge – a symbol of the sacrifices that he and so many others made in the name of equality. America owes Reverend Shuttlesworth a debt of gratitude, and our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Sephira, and their family, friends and loved ones.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/05/statement-president-passing-civil-rights-leader-fred-shuttlesworth

Manning Marable, Historian and Social Critic, Dies at 60

The New York Times By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: April 1, 2011 Manning Marable, a leading scholar of black history and a leftist critic of American social institutions and race relations, whose long-awaited biography of Malcolm X, more than a decade in the writing, is scheduled to be published on MondayHis wife, Leith Mullings, said that the cause was not known but that Mr. Marable, who lived in Manhattan, had entered the hospital with pneumonia in early March. In July 2010, he had undergone a double lung transplant. Mr. Marable, a prolific writer and impassioned polemicist, addressed issues of race and economic injustice in numerous works that established him as one of the most forceful and outspoken scholars of African-American history and race relations in the United States. , died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 60. Full Obituary http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/arts/manning-marable-60-historian-and-social-critic.html?_r=1&hpw

Manning Marable: A Brother, a Mentor, a Great Mind

The Root Michael Eric Dyson recalls the pioneering scholar as a 20th-century Frederick Douglass who nurtured and inspired talented young academics. By: Michael Eric Dyson Posted: April 2, 2011 at 12:36 AM I discovered Manning Marable as a 21-year-old freshman at Knoxville College, a historically black college I'd left my native Detroit to attend after working in factories and fathering a son during the time most college-bound kids are in school. I was in the library stacks, browsing the sociology section, when I came upon a book that grabbed my attention: From the Grassroots: Social and Political Essays Towards Afro-American Liberation. It was clear that Marable's left politics reflected how he had baptized classic European social theory in the black experience. "Wow," I said to myself. "If Karl Marx was a brother, this is how he'd write and think." Full Story: http://www.theroot.com/views/remembering-manning-marable

Geraldine Ferraro Dead: First Female Vice Presidential Candidate Dies At 75

The Huffington Post March 28, 2011 Geraldine Ferraro, a Democrat and the first major female vice presidential candidate, passed away on Saturday, according to a statement released by her family. Jeff Zeleny at the New York Times reports that at the age of 75, Ferraro died of complications from blood cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. Ferraro was the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket. According to a statement released by her family, she died surrounded by her loved ones after battling multiple myeloma for twelve years. Full Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/26/geraldine-ferraro-dead-dies_n_840995.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily+Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief

Groundbreaking Harvard minister Peter Gomes dies

The Boston Globe
By Bryan Marquard
Globe Staff / March 2, 2011

The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, who was known internationally as Harvard’s pastor and was just as pleased to be seen as a son of Plymouth, died Monday in Massachusetts General Hospital of complications of a stroke suffered in December.
At 68, he had been dividing his time between a 1799 house in his hometown and Sparks House, the 19th-century residence reserved for the leader of Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.
Rev. Gomes cut an imposing figure at Harvard and was as memorable for his groundbreaking roles as he was for his aristocratic presence and a preaching style that set him apart.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/03/02/groundbreaking_harvard_minister_peter_gomes_dies/

Sam Yette Dies, Wrote of "Black Survival"

Maynard Institute
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Newsweek's 1st Black D.C. Writer Fired After "The Choice"

Samuel F. Yette, a reporter, teacher, author and photojournalist whose publication of the 1971 book "The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America" coincided with his dismissal as the first black Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine, died Friday at an assisted living facility in Laurel, Md.
He was 81 and had Alzheimer's disease, a son, Michael Yette, told Journal-isms.
"My dad would like to be known for teaching," Michael Yette said. "He was a natural teacher, and he wanted to spread knowledge and wisdom to particularly his people to help them advance the lives of his people, and journalism was his tool of preference in doing that."
However, Yette's controversial Vietnam-era book "The Choice" put him in headlines. It came to be used as a textbook on 50 college campuses, including DePaul University, the University of Chicago and the University of Nebraska, he said, as well as at traditionally black schools such as Howard University.

Full Story: http://mije.org/richardprince/samuel-f-yette-dies

EEOC Chair Statement on Death of Paul Miller

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
PRESS RELEASE
10-18-10

WASHINGTON - I was deeply saddened on Tuesday to learn of the passing of my law school classmate and former EEOC Commissioner Paul Steven Miller. Commissioner Miller was first nominated by President Clinton in May 1994 and served the EEOC -- and ultimately, the nation -- with great distinction until 2004.
Among many achievements during his tenure, Commissioner Miller helped to lead the agency’s efforts to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), visited every state in the Union to meet with the EEOC’s stakeholders, and created the alternative dispute resolution program for settling discrimination claims out of court. He also represented the EEOC internationally, and long before there was a Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), Paul Miller was a proponent of protections against discrimination on the basis of family medical history or genetic information. In July, 2010, Miller was honored for his contributions to the EEOC and work on behalf of people with disabilities during the EEOC's 20th Anniversary Celebration of the ADA.
After leaving the EEOC, Commissioner Miller joined the faculty of the University Of Washington School Of Law. He returned to Washington, D.C. to assist with President Obama's transition and work in the White House in 2009.
Commissioner Miller is survived by his wife, Jennifer Mechem, their daughters Naomi and Delia Mechem-Miller, two sisters, and a host of friends and colleagues, including those of us at the EEOC. He will be greatly missed.

http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/10-18-10a.cfm

Picture: EEOC

Ron Walters, Community's "Tallest Tree," Dead at 72

Afro American Newspapers
September 11, 2010
By Talibah Chikwendu
AFRO Executive Editor

(September 11, 2010) - For more than four decades, Ronald Walters, PhD. served the African-American community, the United States and the world as a consultant, teacher, writer, mentor and friend. His service came to a close Sept. 10, when he lost a battle with cancer at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 72 years old.
Walters was born in Wichita, Kan. in 1938. He earned a bachelor's degree with honors from Fisk University and earned a masters degree in African studies and a doctorate in International Studies from American University. Walters was a professor since the early 1970s, teaching at numerous institutions including at Georgetown, Syracuse, Brandeis and Howard universities and the University of Maryland. He was chairman of the Howard University Department of Political Science and chairman of Afro-American Studies at Brandeis. He also served as a visiting professor at Princeton University and was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Full Story: http://afro.com/sections/news/national/story.htm?storyid=2516

Statement by US Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on death of Willard Wirtz

U.S. Department of Labor

Press Release 4/25/2010

Statement by US Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on death of Willard Wirtz
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement on the death of W. Willard Wirtz:
"Willard Wirtz liked to call me '25.' So I would call him '10.' The number suited him perfectly.
"There is a great story about the nation's 10th U.S. secretary of labor that has been passed down from labor secretary to labor secretary: During the Johnson Administration, Secretary Wirtz often visited school children around the country to talk about jobs and work. After one of his presentations, a young girl came up to him and said, 'I'm the labor secretary of the 4th grade.' 'That's wonderful,' Willard replied. 'What does the labor secretary of the 4th grade do?' 'Well,' she said, 'I clap the erasers, and wash the blackboard, and make sure we always have enough paper and crayons. And at the end of the week, I put all the mess away.' And then the girl asked, 'What do you do?' Willard replied, 'Pretty much the same thing.'
"I asked him about that story last year, when I hosted a reception for him to celebrate his autobiography, which had been recently published. We held the event in the department's labor law library, named after him and his wife, Jane. He thought back for just a few seconds, started to laugh, and admitted that the story was true. Then he whispered to me, 'I hope the job has gotten better.' At the reception, we gathered about two dozen employees who started their careers with him and were still working at the department. He was surprised to see so many still around but was even more excited about the number of young employees — economists, analysts, grants managers, attorneys, investigators — who turned out to hear him speak. 'To be a public servant . . . to be a Labor Department employee . . . it's still a marvelous way to make a living,' he remarked with great satisfaction in his voice.
"Willard Wirtz was the consummate negotiator and played a significant role in preventing and ending major labor strikes during the 1960s. He was a vocal advocate for collective bargaining. As President Johnson's 'general' in the War on Poverty, he initiated an array of programs to help at-risk youth, older workers and the hardcore unemployed. Long before the challenges and promise of workers with disabilities entered the public consciousness, both he and Jane were champions and advocates on their behalf.
"On both a personal and professional level, I owe him a debt of gratitude. One of his most important tasks during his tenure was implementing Labor Department antidiscrimination regulatory responsibilities under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As a result of his work, almost exactly 40 years after he left office, a Latina and daughter of immigrants became the 25th U.S. secretary of labor. I extend my sincerest condolences to his family, especially his sons, Phillip and Richard, and his grandchildren.
"When we last spoke, he told me that we had the best job in a president's cabinet. He said that the health, safety, well-being and dignity of working people should always come first in my mind, that every problem had a solution and that there was no greater calling than working for workers. And then he said, 'Have a little fun, too.' I promised him that I would try."
NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of Secretary Wirtz's last public appearance — at the U.S. Department of Labor on April 2, 2009 — are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rememberingsecwirtz/

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA20100551.htm

Statement by Wade Henderson on the Death of Civil Rights Legend, Dr. Dorothy I. Height

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 20, 2010

Contact: Maggie Kao, 202.466.2735


Statement by Wade Henderson on the Death of Civil Rights Legend, Dr. Dorothy I. Height

“It is with a heavy heart that I mourn the passing of our chairperson, Dr. Dorothy I. Height. For the past seven decades, her work and her wisdom have enriched and ennobled the civil rights movement and our nation.

Dr. Height has been an extraordinary leader, a gifted organizer, a trusted adviser, and a shrewd strategist from the days of the New Deal to these times of the Raw Deal for so many Americans. She was at every important meeting, participated in every historic struggle, and advised major national leaders from Eleanor Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Indeed, her biography is intertwined with the most significant moments of the modern civil rights movement. If Rosa Parks is the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, then Dr. Height is its Queen.

On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Height for more than 20 years. Her wise counsel, political acumen, and pragmatic idealism were, quite simply, invaluable. She was active in the work of The Leadership Conference right up until it was just physically impossible for her to do so, most recently, serving as honorary co-chair of our campaign to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

If, as the saying goes, service is the rent we pay for living, then Dr. Height is paid in full, many times over – and she has paid the tab for many of us as well.

It is an honor and a blessing to have known her."


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Wade Henderson is president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

AAAA Mourns the Passing of Dorothy I. Height

For Immediate Release Contact: Shirley J. Wilcher
April 20, 2010 202-349-9855


American Association for Affirmative Action
Mourns the Passing of Dorothy I. Height
“Champion of Equal Opportunity and the Empowerment of All Women”

Washington, D.C. – April 20, 2010 - The American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA), a national membership organization of equal employment opportunity (EEO), affirmative action and diversity specialists, mourns the passing of Dorothy I. Height, four-decades long president of the National Council of Negro Women and an icon of the civil rights movement. She was 98 years old. AAAA President ReNeé S. Dunman said: “For more than half a century, Dorothy Irene Height was the quintessential women’s rights and civil rights advocate. She stood with the great ones, including A. Philip Randolph, Whitney Young and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Dr. Height was inspired by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her mentor was the late Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.

“Dr. Dorothy Height was an advisor of presidents and a tireless advocate for equal opportunity, both domestically and internationally,” added Ms. Dunman. Dorothy Height, called the “godmother of the women’s movement,” dedicated her life to service and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2002. She was also the recipient of thirty-six honorary doctorate degrees.

Dorothy Height graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree. She also did postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New School of Social Work. Dr. Height was denied admission to Barnard College reportedly because it had reached its quota of black women. “With the loss of Dr. Benjamin Hooks, former president of the NAACP, we have lost two civil rights giants within one week,” stated Ms. Dunman.

As we go forward, we will always remember Dr. Dorothy Height’s call to action: “If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time."

Founded in 1974, the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA) is a national not-for-profit association of professionals working in the areas of affirmative action, equal opportunity, and diversity. AAAA helps its members to be more successful and productive in their careers. It also promotes understanding and advocacy of affirmative action to enhance access and equality in employment, economic and educational opportunities.
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888 16th Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20006
http://www.affirmativeaction.org/

Dorothy I. Height, founding matriarch of civil rights movement, dies at 98

The Washington Post

By Bart Barnes Special to The Washington Post

Tuesday, April 20, 2010; 7:34 AM

Dorothy I. Height, 98, a founding matriarch of the American civil rights movement whose crusade for racial justice and gender equality spanned more than six decades, died early Tuesday morning of natural causes, a spokesperson for the National Council of Negro Women said.

Ms. Height was among the coalition of African American leaders who pushed civil rights to the center of the American political stage after World War II, and she was a key figure in the struggles for school desegregation, voting rights, employment opportunities and public accommodations in the 1950s and 1960s.
She died at 3:41 a.m. at Howard University Hospital, a spokesman there said.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042001287.html?hpid=topnews

Statement by the President on the Passing of Dr. Benjamin Hooks

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
April 15, 2010

Michelle and I were saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks. As I was running for this office, I had the honor of spending some time with Dr. Hooks, and hearing about his extraordinary place in our American story. For 16 years, he led the NAACP with a strong hand and a nimble mind. And all the while, he not only reminded us of that historic organization's noble mission; he inspired each and every one of us to play our part in forging a stronger nation for all Americans. While many would have been satisfied with that achievement, Dr. Hooks was a man driven to accomplish so much more. A true trailblazer, he served as the first African American criminal court judge in his native Tennessee. He became the first African American to serve on the Federal Communications Commission. He earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And throughout it all, he made the time to serve others as a mentor and preach the Gospel as a pastor.
Our national life is richer for the time Dr. Hooks spent on this Earth. And our union is more perfect for the way he spent it: giving a voice to the voiceless. Michelle and I offer our thoughts and prayers to his wife, Frances; his daughter, Patricia Gray; and all who knew Dr. Hooks through his extraordinary good works.

Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks dies

CNN.com
By Mark Bixler, CNN
April 15, 2010 10:50 a.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks led NAACP from 1977 to 1992
The cause of Hooks' death was not immediately known, NAACP official says
Hooks received Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 2007
World War II service deepened "resolve to do something about bigotry in the South," bio says

(CNN) -- Benjamin L. Hooks, a civil rights leader who led the NAACP from 1977 to 1992, has died, said the vice president for communication at the NAACP.
The cause of death was not immediately known, the NAACP's Leila McDowell said Thursday.
Hooks was "a vocal campaigner for civil rights in the United States," said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925, Hooks grew up in the segregated South.
Hooks served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he "found himself in the humiliating position of guarding Italian prisoners of war who were allowed to eat in restaurants that were off limits to him. The experience helped to deepen his resolve to do something about bigotry in the South," according to a biography published by the University of Memphis, where he was a professor in the political science department.
He also was a lawyer and an ordained Baptist minister who joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and led the NAACP for 15 years.

Full Story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/15/obit.benjamin.hooks/index.html

Robben W. Fleming, University President in Turbulent Times, Dies at 93

The New York Times

By BRUCE WEBER
Published: January 21, 2010

Robben W. Fleming, who as president of the University of Michigan in the late 1960s and ’70s steered it through a turbulent era of student protests, using his labor negotiator’s skills to help defuse crises before they could turn violent, died Jan. 11 in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 93.
His son, James, confirmed the death. His father’s health had been failing for some time, he said.
Mr. Fleming, who led Michigan from 1968 to 1978, was often described as patient and unflappable. Those qualities proved useful in March 1969, when members of the left-wing protest group Students for a Democratic Society, demonstrating against the presence of military personnel on campus, barricaded a Navy recruiter in a room.
Mr. Fleming, an opponent of the Vietnam War, refused to summon police, and the threat passed. But he stood firm against protesters in defending the right of the armed services to recruit at the school.
“The university must always be a world of ideas, often in conflict,” Mr. Fleming said. “It ceases to be a university, however, when a group which is willing to use totalitarian tactics can impose on the rest of us its views.”
In 1970, an activist group called the Black Action Movement, supported by many white students and the S.D.S., which threatened violent protests, demanded that the university increase black enrollment to 10 percent from 3 percent and called a student strike, which lasted 12 days.
Mr. Fleming, who supported affirmative action, negotiated an agreement with student leaders calling for an increase in financing for recruiting qualified black applicants and setting a 10 percent enrollment goal without committing to it as a quota.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/education/22fleming.html