Harold Michael Harvey

We are in the business of writing and publishing

Steele Is Still Making Moves At SCLC

17/06/25 at 9.40am   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Charles Steele, Jr. President and CEO of SCLC addresses civil rights activists gathered to witness the naming of the SCLC International Headquarters after him.
Photo Credits: Harold Michael Harvey (c) 2016 All Rights Reserved

Dr. Charles Steele, Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is still making moves at SCLC as he makes plans for their 59th convention. The organization first convened in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1957 to chart a course  to eliminate “war, poverty and injustice.”

This year the group’s convention will meet in Memphis, Tennessee, July 20-22. It will be the 49th year that the organization has gathered since its principle organizer and fundraiser, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in that city, April 4, 1968.

Many believed in 1968 that SCLC died with Dr. King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel outside of room 306.

But men like Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, stepped up and preserved its relevancy through the last third of the 20th century and into the turbulent waters of the 21st century.

Early in the 21st century, a period of unrest descended upon SCLC, then rumors stirred again of the demise of the poor people’s campaign for peace, justice and prosperity.

“SCLC has outlived its usefulness,” those quick to abandon ship pointed out.

Others posited that as a generation of Black young people who had not been born when SCLC broke the back of ‘Jim Crow,’ came into adulthood, they would not abide by SCLC’s non-violent policy.

Riots around the country following the acquittal of the Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King gave credence to this speculation.

There was palace intrigue and infighting inside SCLC. It became public. It caused the local daily newspaper to sound the death knell for what it would later describe as a “legacy civil rights organization.” Legacy as in obsolete, no relevancy to solutions for today’s issues.

Before the press could bury SCLC, the organization sent for the son of a Tuscaloosa, Alabama undertaker to breathe new life into Dr. King’s perpetual dream of Southern Christians leading the way in the fight for human rights for all God’s children.

In 2004 when the call came, Steele was serving in the Alabama State Senate. He had already completed a distinguished tenure as the first African American elected to the Tuscaloosa City Council and was ably serving as State President of the Alabama Chapter of SCLC.

Steele resigned his senate seat. Leaving his family in Tuscaloosa, he drove to Atlanta, where he  lived out of his car, as he went from church to church begging for money – as few wanted to sow money into a dying organization – to pay the staff and turn the lights and telephone services back on at the SCLC office.

Steele was undaunted by this challenge. He met Rev.  Timothy Flemming, Sr., “a boy preacher” out of Macon, Georgia who had come to Atlanta as a young man and figured out a way to self-finance Mount Carmel Baptist Church, the Atlanta area’s first mega-church.

Dr. Charles Steele, Jr. at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

Flemming sowed $3,000 into Steele’s vision of globalizing Dr. King’s message and taking it to the world. Steele, an avid fundraiser on the order of Dr. King received Rev. Flemming’s donation and when he had the lights and telephone service back on; he got on the telephone and began to seek corporate donations to restore what he calls, “Dr. King’s organization.”

Soon Steele had raised $5 million for the construction of a new headquarters for SCLC. When the building was dedicated in 2007, it was paid for free and clear of any debt.

SCLC was on solid footing once again. It would no longer have to worry about where it would conduct business. Staff members were able to support their families and the organization was actively engaged in the issues of the day. His mission accomplished, he resigned.

Dr. Charles Steele, Jr. in Memphis site of SCLC 59th National Convention.

Dr. Steele then partnered with his high school football teammate, George Curry, by this time, a noted syndicated columnist, and entered the world of international consulting. He was traveling the globe meeting business and political leaders when the call came that SCLC was in financial trouble again.

In 2012, Steele came back to SCLC to find that the debt free building he had left was now encumbered. He restructured the organization’s debt and saved the building from the bank. In 2016 SCLC rewarded him for his service by naming the building, SCLC International Headquarters, The Charles Steele, Jr. Building.

In 2014, Steele called for the erection of a statue of Dr. King on the grounds of the Georgia state capitol in spite of the fact the governor had sent word; he would support putting a statute in a “statuary garden” on Washington Avenue, but not on the capitol grounds.  Moreover, when Dr. King was killed the state refused to allow his remains to lie in state in the capitol rotunda.

On August 28 this year, 54 years after “The March on Washington,” a statute of Dr. King will be placed on the spot where a statute of the segregationist Tom Watson once stood on the grounds of the state capitol.

Steele’s sees this as a significant victory for the legacy of Dr. King. As he make plans for the 59 th convention in Memphis next month, Steele says, he will visit other southern states and encourage the removal of confederate statues and will call for the erection of a monument of Dr. King.

“Symbols mean something,” Steele said. “You either are for love or you are for hate. I think we ought to promote people who tried to spread love and not people who tried to overthrow the United States government.”

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

 

Advertisements

Another Cop Gets Away With Killing A Black Man

17/06/24 at 10.04am   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment
Samuel Dubose Memorial

Harold Michael Harvey surveying a makeshift memorial at the intersection of Rice Street and Valencia Street in Cincinnati where Sam Dubose was shot in the head by Cop Ray Tensing of the University of Cincinnati Police Department on July 19, 2015.
(c) 2015 Cascade Publishing House

Another cop has essentially gotten away with killing a Black man in the USA. Ray Tensing, a former University of Cincinnati police officer can breathe a sigh of relief as a second jury has deadlocked in the shooting death of Samuel Dubose.

Tensing pulled Dubose over near the University of Cincinnati campus after detecting that Dubose was missing one of two license plates the State of Ohio requires.

Dubose produced a bill of sale to show ownership of the vehicle, but Tensing insisted that Dubose explain whether his car was properly registered with the state.

When Dubose realized that he could not reason with Tensing, he attempted to drive off. Tensing immediately pulls his revolver and fired into Dubose car, striking him with a projectile in the head and killing him.

Last year a Cincinnati jury could not reach a verdict and the judge ordered a mistrial in the case. It is doubtful that a Cincinnati jury will ever convict a white cop for killing a Black man.

This week Lilly Workneh and Taryn Finley  writing in the Huffington Post, documented 21 cop killings dating back to the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo by New York City cops, where the cop or cops involved have received no criminal punishment.

Twenty-two times out of twenty-two altercations, a white cop has been right. Something about those numbers suggests that the scales of justice are weighed heavier on one side from the “git go.”

Based on this record number of acquittals and hung juries in recent months it is safe to say without bias or hesitation, that it is unlikely we will ever see a white cop convicted of first degree murder of a Black man or boy in the next 50 years.

When it comes to the white man’s right to kill a Black man, it becomes very difficult for white people to put aside subconscious racial feelings that will enable them to see the events unfold through the eyes of the Black victim. A Black man who questions the authority of a cop has always been considered a bad Black man in USA society. And to be considered a bad Black man, puts that Black man one step closer to death without criminal recourse to his attacker.

As a former criminal defense attorney, I know this dichotomy far too well. Overtime I developed a method to sensitize white  prospective jurors to their subconscious racial feelings and  with good results.

Another solution is for Black people to take jury duty more seriously, as seriously as breathing, because their lives depend upon fairness and justice when encountering a white cop.

As long as a white cop knows there will be no long-term criminal liability for killing a Black man or woman, they will not think twice before reaching for their gun and firing rounds of ammunition  into a car with men, women and children of color.

I promise you it is a fact, that white people vote white, whether it is at the ballot box or in the jury box. Black people must begin to do the same thing in order to restore justice to an unjust system.

It’s like going to a real estate closing. Both sides may sit in the room, hee and haw and grunt, but until they agree on all the terms, there is no deal. Black jurors have to begin to take control of the jury room and demand justice or no deal at all, in all matters they are called upon to decide, whether it is a cop related killing or otherwise.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

Donald Plays Trump Card In Georgia Sixth

17/06/22 at 7.54am   /   by Michael   /   4 Comments

President Donald Trump, shown here at Redding Municipal Airport Friday, June 3, 2016, in Redding, Calif. , has played The Trump Card in Georgia Sixth Congressional District and won.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Donald has played the trump card again. This time in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District. He is on a roll. This was the seventh time the Trump card has been played and each time the Trump card has proven to be a winner for the Republicans.

The Donald first played the trump card last summer during the GOP primaries. He won their nomination for president.

The Democrats were chomping at the bit, the saliva was drooping down their cheeks at the prospect of getting Trump in the General Election ring. Their candidate, a former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of Defense was a shoo-in to trounce him in a game of bid whist, a card game popular among African Americans.

She was a shoo-in, that is, until The Donald played the trump card. No one is sure if he pulled this card out of his sleeve, got it from the Russians or whether it came with the hand he was dealt.

What we know is The Donald is, for now, the King of the Hill; and that he has played the trump card in five congressional special elections since winning the White House sweepstakes seven months ago, winning each time he has intervened on behalf of a Republican candidate.

Meanwhile, Democrats find every reason under the sun to explain why they have not won a major election since President Barack Obama won reelection in 2012. Every reason that is that has to do with how corrupt and crooked Donald Trump is, but nary a finger pointing at what they have done to throw the last six federal elections.

Democrats have to come to grips with one salient fact: Donald Trump, the man they like to despise, as unfit to be president, is kicking them in the seat of the pants and enjoying the fact that Democrats do not have a clue about how he is doing it.

Allow me to let you in on a secret: Trump is winning precisely because he is speaking the language of the people he represents, at a time when Democrats are speaking in lofty terms about things that do not speak to the goals and aspirations of their constituents.

Moreover, Democratic party bosses should get out of the business of hand-picking candidates to represent the party. They should allow the natural selection process to run its course to determine what issues the people want addressed.

For instance, three years ago in Georgia, a red state, Democratic Party bigwigs selected a conservative Democrat to run against a conservative Republican for an open senate seat. A lukewarm Democrat is about as useless to a political party as a lukewarm Christian is to the “Kingdom.”

Additionally the Democrat, Michelle Nunn, had not lived in Georgia since she was in middle school and has not been seen in the state since she lost that election to David Perdue. There were qualified Democratic candidates living in the state, who given the financial resources, could have run a winning campaign.

Fast forward to 2017, Democrats in Washington, sent a 21 st century carpetbagger south to run for the open house seat vacated by Rep. Tom Price. But that is not all, not only did the party select John Ossoff, a Georgia native, who had been living in Washington to run for Georgia’s Sixth Congressional seat, but Ossoff failed to set up residence in the Sixth District, opting instead to reside in his parents basement which was outside district lines.

In all fairness to him, the constitution does not require representatives to live in the congressional district they represent, but to do otherwise, smacks of taxation without representation.

Ossoff did not remedy this situation and did not provide any voter education to inform the public that the constitution does not prohibit him from representing the area in Washington.

After Ossoff had spent $23 million – none on voter education – he held a one percentage point lead going into election day, The Donald, pulled out yet another trump card, hitting Ossoff over the head with the fact that he did not live in the district.

In fact had the vote ended in a tie, Ossoff could not have voted to ensure himself the victory. Additionally, Ossoff is another lukewarm Democrat, who took a middle of the road political persona. History records that we are in a period of extreme political rhetoric and he or she who would be elected to public office must of necessity take a hard line stand to the right or to the left of center.

It is blunders like these that keeps Donald J. Trump in control of the bid whist game, which prevents Democrats from bidding no trump downtown allowing the contestant with the lowest vote count to win.

Oh forget the spin, close only counts in horseshoes, not to mention, that it takes a well-run operation to win the close matches and right now, Trump is winning the close bids. This enables him to name the trump suit and to keep the game uptown where the team with the highest number win.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

Jill Stein Denies She Took Money from Putin

17/06/21 at 8.21pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Jill Stein holds a media briefing at the University of Houston, August 6, 2016.Lately, she has come under fire for attending a 2015 dinner where Putin was present.
Photo Credits: (c) 2016
Harold Michael Harvey

Sounds of jazz from the bebop era flowed through the air of a two story home in Atlanta’s snazzy Little Five Points community on Friday, June 17, 2017 miles from Putin and Russia. Small groups of Green Party loyalists mingled, drinking purified water, nibbling on arugula salad with pitted and unpitted olives, humus and artichokes.

The front door opened and in sauntered a petite gray-haired lady, bounding with energy. She asked for a quiet space to use her lap-top to complete chronicling, for public view, her perception of an infamous dinner in Moscow, Russia with Michael Flynn and Vladimir Putin in December 2015.

The host escorted her to an upstairs writing room. Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor is the center of a Special Prosecutor’s probe into allegations that the Russian government attempted to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Seated across from Flynn at this late 2015 dinner was Jill Stein, who eight months later would receive the Green Party nomination for president.

Stein acknowledged she attended the now infamous dinner where Michael Flynn can be seen in a video seated next to Vladimir Putin. The dinner was hosted by the RT news agency, formerly Russia Today. Reportedly, Flynn received $40,000 from the Russians to attend this dinner which was a celebration of RT’s 10th anniversary.

As the party faithful continued to arrive, Stein worked on her paper. When she came downstairs the host handed her a glass of water, several state party officials spoke to the group while Stein found the vegetarian spread on the table to her delight.

She addressed her appearance at this controversial dinner seating across from Putin and the fact that she is being pulled into the Russian election meddling controversy:

“I did not receive any money for travel, for my hotel or anything else,” Stein said, adding, “I guess if you add up the cost of the meal at the dinner that would be the extent of it, and I didn’t pay for the meal.”

Other than an interview with Mother Jones a few weeks ago, this was the first time that Stein had opened up in a public group to discuss her 2015 trip to Russia. She is in Atlanta this weekend to speak at the Georgia Green Party’s annual state convention.

“I went to Russia to discuss peace,” she said. “I had no idea that Putin would be present. I did not know who Flynn was, but I did exchanging pleasantries with him because he was one of the few people at the table who spoke English, she added.

Stein describes the dinner scene with Putin this way:

“I was seated at the table; in walked Putin with what I assumed were his storm-troopers. They actually rushed in like they were storm-troopers. I later learned that the other men were his deputy secretaries. Neither Putin nor any of the men in his group spoke in English. They spoke Russian at the table, so there was no communication taking place. The English speaking people at the table spoke English and the Russians spoke Russian. Putin got up and made a speech entirely in Russian. No one at the table who did not speak Russian knew what he had said in his speech. All I know is he gave a speech. I could not tell you what he said,” she stated.

Stein’s appearance at the Flynn-Putin dinner was brought to light by Rachel Maddow on a Vice News report. Maddow speculates that Stein may have been involved in Russian meddling in the US presidential election.

Stein denied any involvement with the Russians. She denied receiving any financial support from them and asserted that her run for the presidency was about waging a war for peace, which she contends is not the end game of Putin or Trump.

“During that trip, I visited Paris where I met with both French and Chinese officials and spoke to them about the need to reduce carbon emissions around the world and to let them know that there were people inside the United States who took climate change seriously,” she said.

“I’m honored by the attention we are getting on this issue. Somebody wants to slow us down, that can only mean that we have been successful in getting our message of people, planet and peace over profit, out to the people,” she beamed.

 

Harold Michael Harvey is a novelist and essayist. He is the author of Paper Puzzle and Justice in the Round. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Spending Father’s Day 2017 With Jimmy Carter

17/06/19 at 10.07pm   /   by Michael   /   2 Comments
Former President Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter at 92 years old, doing what he has done since he was 18 years old, teaching Sunday School, June 18, 2017.
(c) 2017 Harold Michael Harvey

I’ve often wanted to spend a Sunday morning discussing the great and eternal spiritual issues of our times with President Jimmy Carter.

Back in the late 1980s my mother and her sorority sisters made the trip by bus from Macon, Georgia down to Plains, Georgia to attend Carter’s Sunday School class.

She was most impressed with the fact that Carter recognized her group during the service and inquired where they were having dinner following the service.

After the service, the sorority sisters boarded their bus for a stop at, Mom’s Kitchen, the only restaurant  in town where visitors could get a good, home cooked Sunday meal.

Shortly after they were seated, President Carter came into the dining room and went from table-to-table shaking hands and greeting members of her group.

“How cool was that,” I thought when she recounted the events of her visit to Plains, Georgia.

So I placed studying the Bible with President Carter on my bucket list. As often happens with items on a bucket list, it got pushed to the bottom of the list.

“What’s the rush,” I thought. The affable Carter would always be with us. Then, a little over a year ago, he announced that he had a cancer growing in his body. Suddenly the mortality of the 39th President and that of my own, came into focus.

Although I had discussed politics with Carter, President Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger during the early days of the Carter Center at conferences that were held at Emory University, I had not been present in a room where he shared his thoughts on God and humankind’s relationship with the Divine.

President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Roslyn Carter poses for a picture with Harold Michael Harvey and Cynthia Harvey at Maranatha Baptist Church, June 18, 2017
Photo Credits: Jill Stuckey

It was time to check this off the bucket list. My wife and I planned a trip to Plains, Georgia for the third Sunday in June this year. At the time we made the arrangements we were not aware that our visit would occur on Father’s Day.

As fate would have it our son was on a work assignment in the northeast and would not be home for Father’s Day, so we shared the day with President Carter, who was honored to have his sons Jack and Chip in Sunday School on this Father’s Day.

The Sunday School lesson centered around the Prophets and their relationship to the Holy Spirit. He likened the role of God as the Father and the prophets as the children. Before tackling his subject, he read a poem that he had written to his father, James Earl Carter, Sr., who transitioned after spending only 29 years in Carter’s life.

After reading the poem, Carter posited that each of us have a part of our father in us. He then asked if anyone disagreed.

No one did, at least no one vocalized any disagreement with Carter’s preposition. I could not disagree or agree as  I do not have any memories of my father and do not know how I am similar or dissimilar than he.

I do know I have much of my mother’s father and her two brothers in me, which suggests while biology may have shaped my appearance, personality can be shaped by the role models who sew into young lives. We all would do well to keep this thought in mind when in the presence of children, whether from our loins or otherwise.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

 

What’s Holding Up Cosby Jury Verdict?

17/06/15 at 11.06pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Bill Cosby, the funniest man in show business awaits jury verdict in sexual misconduct trial
Photo Credits: The Guardian.Com

What’s holding up a jury of five men and seven women from reaching a verdict in the Bill Cosby case is anybody’s guess?

On the fourth day of deliberations, the Pennsylvania jury notified the court that it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the charges brought against Cosby by Andrea Constand.

The court gave the jury what is known as the Spencer Charge in Pennsylvania, otherwise known in most regions of the country as the Allen Charge, which instructs the jury to get back in the jury room and give another good faith effort to reach a decision in the case, because they are the best jury in the world to decide this case.

Very few defense attorneys are happy when the court gives the Allen or Spencer Charge, because it tend to suggest to the jury that not being able to reach a decision is frown upon by the law. This in truth and in fact is not true. At the commencement of any criminal trial there are three possible verdicts: Guilty, Not Guilty and No Decision or in court parlance, a Hung Jury.

It has been this writer’s experience that an Allen Charge usually end in a split verdict where the defendant is found guilty of some charges and innocence on others to appease the juror or minority of jurors who were reluctant to go along with the majority.

However, the nature of the charges in the Cosby case may shed some light on why the jury is having a problem reaching a verdict in this case.

Unlike the two year trial in the court of public opinion waged by Constand’s civil attorney Gloria Allred, this jury has taken an oath to allow their verdict to speak the truth of what happened between Constand and Cosby.

Cosby is charged with one count of penetration without consent. When Constand made the allegation against Cosby, she said that it had occurred a year from the date of her report. Therefore, there was no physical evidence to corroborate her version of what transpired between the two of them.

This fact presents a problem for the jury because count one of the indictment alleges that Cosby penetrated Constand without her consent.

Although Cosby did not testify at trial, his statement to police was read into the record by a Pennsylvania police officer. Cosby told police at that time that he had a romantic relationship with Constand and had engaged in consensual sex with her. Thus, this count comes down to “she said, he said.”

Count two alleges that Cosby penetrated Constand while she was unconscious. Constand testified that she became unconscious at Cosby’s Philadelphia estate and when she regain consciousness her clothes were disheveled and Cosby was in a bathrobe.

Other than for Constand’s word that she believes she had been penetrated by Cosby, there is no physical evidence to prove that she was penetrated by Cosby on that occasion. Again Cosby did not offer any testimony at trial, but his previous statement contends that he only engaged in consensual sex with Constand.

Count three alleges that Cosby penetrated Constand after administering an intoxicant without her knowledge. Constand testified that after telling Cosby that she did not feel well, he gave her a pill that he said would make her feel better. She then voluntarily swallowed the pill.

It would appear that some members of the jury are having a problem deciding that Constand was given this medication without her knowledge.

In order to gain a conviction on Count One, the prosecutor will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt penetration without Constand’s consent.  She said it was without consent and Cosby said it was with consent.

With respect to Count Two, the prosecutor must prove penetration without consent while unconscious.  Constand could offer no testimony that Cosby penetrated her while in this alleged unconscious condition because she was unaware of what took place while she was unconscious.

Also, Count Three, the prosecutor must prove penetration after administering intoxicant with Constand’s knowledge. Constand testified that she knowledging ingested the pill given to her by Cosby.

Perhaps, a member or a few members of this jury do not believe that the prosecutor has proven penetration under the three different circumstances the indictment alleges and thus are hanging this jury up.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

Tuskegee Successful in removing SAC Warning

17/06/15 at 2.20pm   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Tuskegee University, the pride of the swift growing south, has been taken off warning status by SAC.
Photo Credits: Harold Michael Harvey

CASCADE PRESS (CP), Atlanta, Georgia, Today, Tuskegee University successfully navigated itself through a series of accreditation warnings notices imposed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SAC). This agency grants accreditation to the university’s degree granting programs.

Back in June 2015, Tuskegee University for the first time in its 135 year history saw its accreditation threaten. In 2015, SAC gave the university 12 months to resolve 18 issues. When Tuskegee issued it responds to those issues in June 2016, SAC found the university had successfully addressed 14 of their concerns, but placed the university on warning status for an additional 12 months so they could address the remaining four items.

Two weeks ago, John Page, Chair of the Tuskegee Board of Trustees told the Atlanta Tuskegee Alumni Club that the four remaining issues were financial issues that related to how the BOT handled certain matters.He pledged to the group at a banquet honoring Willie Slater, the university Head Football Coach, that the BOT would address those concerns.

Last month, Tuskegee University announced that it would not renew the contract of its president, Dr. Brian L. Johnson when it expires on June 30 this year.

Prior to the Tuskegee’s announcement that Johnson would not return to the university during the 2017-18 academic year, a story ran in Diverse Education indicating that Dr. Johnson had been fired by Tuskegee because, the university learned that he had interviewed for the Chancellor job at North Carolina Central University in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina.

The university later released a statement simply announcing that Johnson’s contract would not be renewed.

Today, Johnson, a master social media communicator, caught Tuskegee flat-footed again by being the first to announce the news. He did so via a twitter announcement.

As of our publication time, Tuskegee had not made an official announcement alerting its students, faculty, staff and alumni that the warning notice has been lifted.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

 

 

 

Finally, A Business Card to Rep What I Do

17/06/12 at 7.14am   /   by Michael   /   4 Comments

Harold Michael Harvey’s business card reppin his position as Publisher at Cascade Publishing House.

Finally, I did it. I finally got another business card. I have not had a business card announcing what I do, since sometimes around 2003 when I closed The Harvey Law Firm, A Professional Corporation.

During the last 17 years, I have been reluctant to take on another business venture and brand it with my own style. Just didn’t want the hassle of being officially in business or working at a trade – the writer’s trade – albeit is a trade I enjoy and had yearned, as a youngster to pursue.

Dabbing my fingers here and there as a writer, author and publisher gives me a sense of independence, which is something I wanted after spending nearly two decades defending the criminally accused and the negligently injured members of my community.

Cyn has been after me for quite some time to get business cards to tell the world that I am a writer and published author.

I resisted, settling instead to whip out a copy of a 4 by 6 inch flyer bearing the cover of my latest book.

After all, these flyers for Paper Puzzle and Justice in the Round, contained the pertinent information, therefore, name, cellular number,  email and website address, in addition to displaying advertising for the book.

“Why not,” the practical side of me thought, as I handed out my 4 by 6 inch flyer to those who asked for a business card.

Each time I did so, I never failed to miss the frown on the faces of those who asked for a business card. In spite of the fact no one I handed the book cover to ever called or emailed me, I was loathe to admit that Cyn was right. I needed a business card to hand out to the public when I was at book festivals or speaking on panel discussions with other authors.

Then too, seldom did I get calls for legal business from the people I handed a Harvey Law Firm card. The business tended to come from other advertisement sources.

Well, finally, I went out and ordered a box of snazzy business cards announcing to the world, that I am publisher at Cascade Publishing House. It is my goal to make Atlanta, Georgia a player in the world of book publishing, like L. A. Reid and Babyface Edmonds did in placing Atlanta in the middle of the music scene.

It is doable. In the early days of Atlanta Hip-Hop, when it seemed there was no way it would happen,The Harvey Law Firm repped music producer Dallas Austin in what may have been one of his first music contracts and the songwriter, Roy Murray for the lyrics he wrote for the Silk hit, Freak Me.

Now that I have business cards, I am looking forward to seeing if those frowns turn into phone calls and emails inquiring about the services we offer at Cascade Publishing House. I am looking forward to seeing Atlanta competing with New York in the world of book publishing.

Here goes! I am giving it the good old Harvey try. Please join me. Allow me help you write and publish that interesting book that has been burning inside of you and yearning to see the light of day.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

Can John Page Restore Tuskegee’s Legacy?

17/06/09 at 9.11am   /   by Michael   /   2 Comments

Lewis Adams legacy depicted in the iconic statue at Tuskegee University of Booker T. Washington pointing the way to progress through education.
Photo Credits: Harold Michael Harvey

Last week the Tuskegee University Board of Trustees put to an end campus rumors that Dr. Brian L. Johnson, the university’s seventh president would be leaving his job on June 30, 2017.

He will.

Guy Rhodes, Editor and Publisher of the Tuskegee News opined last week that Johnson’s situation at the university was on shaky ground from the outset.

Rhodes’ editorial on the brief tumultuous tenure of Dr. Johnson outlined alumni criticism of Johnson from the start of his tenure.

Top on Rhodes’ list is the fact that Johnson was, “Hired when he was 40 years old with no experience as a University president.”

Johnson’s age would not have been so much of a factor, Booker T. Washington was only 25 years old when he became the first Tuskegee Principal, however, in a different century, Johnson’s youth coupled with the fact that he did not have any indicia on his resume that he could manage a legacy university was a protend of problems to come.

Rhodes points out that Johnson’s fate at Tuskegee perhaps was sealed when the Tuskegee Board ousted Gen. (Retired) Charles E. Williams as it chair.

Board members in an off the record conversation two years ago, told this writer, that Williams pushed Johnson through by acclamation as members were preparing to leave for the airport.

This brings us to John Page, a corporate attorney who was selected by the BOT to replace Williams as its chair.

Page is fond of saying he grew up in the ghettos of New York and that he could relate to Dr. Johnson’s recitations of having grown up in rat and roach infested tenements in North Carolina. Page was a staunch supporter of Johnson’s. He boldly defended Johnson against financial contributing alumni who called for Johnson to be replaced several years ago.

It was with reluctance, the university’s statement of Johnson’s departure, seemed to say in announcing that the BOT declined to renew Johnson’s contract when it expires later this month.

Now, it is on the shoulders of John Page to steer the BOT through the search for a new leader.

Can Page do it without meddling in the selection process like Gen. Williams?

The future of the university depends on smart leadership unencumbered by personal egos or agendas. Does Page have what it takes to hire a good president that will serve the university for more than three years?

Page’s brief tenure as board chair is not without criticism. Alumni contend that Page, a graduate of a Historically White University, also known as, PWI’s, does not know, understand or respect the HBCU legacy. They cite the condescending, ghetto-esque tone he often strikes when speaking before student, administrative and alumni groups.

“If you would not speak to a group at Auburn like that, or at one of your corporate board meetings, like that, then don’t speak that way to a group at Tuskegee,” one alumni said.

Also, Page comes under fire from alumni because he will not release a financial statement on the university. Last year Page told a group of concerned Tuskegee alumni in Atlanta, Georgia that he was reluctant to release a financial statement because the university was involved in a large number of lawsuits and he did not want to get that information into the hands of the plaintiffs who are suiting the university.

Perhaps, this is a corporate lawyer trick to hide information from disclosure in the discovery phase of litigation. In any event, alumni argue they are entitled to see the assets and liabilities of the university. Page says that far too few alumni give to  preserve the legacy of the university and thus are not entitled to know its financial status.

Graduates argue they would give more if the university would release information for them to determine whether the BOT is a good steward of its financial resources.

The crux of Page’s leadership hinges on whether he releases a financial statement certified by a public accountant. So far, Page has been stubbornly litigious in refusing to release a financial statement.

One graduate argues that Page’s own school, Pace University, annually releases a financial statement that is available to anyone in the world who has an interest in reviewing them.

Concern alumni view Page’s refusal to release a financial statement when his alma mater does, is another piece of evidence that he does not respect the HBCU legacy and believes that a HBCU institution and its alumni are not entitled to the same respect and information as a Historically White University.

Does John Page have the right stuff to follow the Tuskegee trajectory set in place by Lewis Adams in 1880?

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

Hitting Our Stride At Cascade Publishing House

17/06/08 at 8.32am   /   by Michael   /   0 Comment

Atlanta, Georgia is home to Cascade Publishing House the perfect house for the author who seeks a small publishing house experience.

It is hard to imagine it. The calendar says that Cascade Publishing House has been six years in the world of publishing. We are finally hitting our stride. The idea for Cascade Publishing House came about after I had a bad experience in the traditional world of book publishers.

In late 2009, I signed a publishing contract with a Baltimore Publishing House. It had the indicia of a real publishing house. After receiving a small advance, my manuscript, Paper Puzzle was on its way to becoming a published work of fiction.

I was excited when the galleries came in the mail. My lifelong dream to see a murder mystery that I had begun in the late 1970s was about to become reality.

What I did not realize is that no one at the the big time publishing house was willing to work as hard as I to produce a quality book that would not be a public embarrassment.

This publisher did not care about my ideas for marketing this work. They had their own scheme to get the money they had forked out for this book and were not willing to consider any input that I had on the subject. I had a vested interest in the book, as I stood to profit in proportion to how well it did.

Throughout much of 2010, I attempted to work with this publisher, but seemed to be hitting my head repeatedly upside a brick wall. In the spring of 2011, I decided to attend Book Expo America in New York and meet with my publisher. I came demanding answers.

When the representatives showed little interest in my concerns, I left them with a little piece of my mind. I walked out of the  Jacob Javits Center determined to establish a publishing house that would service writers like myself who could benefit from a small publishing house experience.

After researching the industry, I rolled up my sleeves, negotiated myself out of the agreement I had with the first publisher, set up the Cascade Publishing House and republished Paper Puzzle under its masthead.

Paper Puzzle did well. So well, that I put off writing another book for several years, then in 2015 we published Justice in the Round:Essays on the American Jury System. This book continues to bring a modest profit into Cascade Publishing House.

In 2016 we were ready to offer our publishing services to other writers and agreed to publish a book by Dr. Charles Steele, Jr., President and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference titled, Easier to Obtain than to Maintain: The Globalization of the Civil Rights Movement.

In 2017, we followed the publication of Dr. Steele’s book with a book on relationships by Rodney Battle titled, Old Habits-News Habits: Love and Relationships.

Also, this summer Cascade Publishing House will release two books. The first one is written by Ruby J. Simon about a little known black community in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It will bear the title, Big Bend: Where the Tide Rolls Around Tuscaloosa.

The other offering is a spiritual inspirational book by Valinda Johnson titled, Thus Far the Lord Has Been With Us.

All four of them Steele, Battle, Simon and Johnson are new authors. Their works are important contributions to the history and culture of our nation and would have found their way into publication without the assistance of Cascade Publishing House, but I dare say, the journey would not have been as sweet and as stress free as the roadmap we laid out for them.

We are currently negotiating to write and publish Dr. Steele’s memories which are expected to be published in 2018.

Additionally, we have been approached to write a screenplay on a historic moment in the history of the National Football League, which because of the nature of the event, will never be matched.

After six years in the trenches we are hitting our stride  We are here to help you get that story out of your head, into your computer, into print and ultimately into the hands of your readers.

 

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round, edited Easier to obtain Than to Maintain: The Globalization of Civil Rights by Charles Steele, Jr.; and the host of Beyond the Law with Harold Michael Harvey. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.

 

 

 

 

Next Posts
%d bloggers like this: