Dirty Little Secrets in Black Leadership: Headwaters Foundation’s Trista Harris answer to, “Let us participate on Saturday (11/21) at General Mills”
Who are the 170 African-American leaders involved in this “work-group” tomorrow (11/21) at General Mills? I’m sure I can name some of the usual suspects that have failed the Black community time and time again. Why it is that this woman is in charge of who attends an African-American Leadership Summit? Controls are no different than Slavery in a cold Jim Crow.
Please join us at General Mills to protest the exclusion of stakeholders in the African-American Leadership Forum tomorrow at General Mills.
The following is a response from Headwaters Foundation Trista Harris:
I’m following up on our conversation this morning. Saturday’s African American Leadership Forum is for community members that have participated in previous meetings of the African American Leadership Forum. I certainly want you to know that all the people you mentioned are welcome to be a part of this effort but because this is a working meeting, Saturday’s Forum is not an appropriate place for them to become engaged.
One of the things that we set up as an entry point into the African American Leadership Forum is the need for the attendees to have a pre-meeting to become familiar with the work that’s been done to date.
We call these groups cascading groups. We have instituted this arrangement in part because we want people to become familiar with the previous work and add value in a smaller groups setting, so that we don’t have to restart the Forum every time new members come to a larger meeting.
After this weekend’s meeting if you would like to call together a cascading group of your own, we will provide facilitation assistance and food for the meeting. These have been exciting meetings where we already have 170 African-American leaders attend. People really like this approach and have gotten a lot out of the cascading group meetings. I have been heartened by this work and the need for a forum of African-American leaders to develop a shared agenda.
I also hope you understand the approach we are taking. I will make sure that they get invited to a cascading group to become part of this important work.
I look forward to working with you on this and other issues that impact low-income people in our community.
Best wishes,
Trista Harris
Executive Director
www.headwatersfoundation.org
2801 21st Ave S. Suite 131
Minneapolis, MN 55407
P: 612-879-0602 # 13
F: 612-879-0613
It’s on!
Lawyer Organizes Lynch Mob & Uses Machine Guns, Dogs & Tanks To Hunt Down A Black Man Where The Lynching Of Emmett Till Took Place – “On Thursday, August 20, 2009,” WTF?
A True Story Submitted to IBNN by: W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News , the home of 21st Century citizen journalism!
“Nowhere in the civilized worlds save the United States of America, do men, possessing all civil and political power, go out in bands of 50 to 5,000 to hunt down, shoot, hang or burn to death an individual unarmed and absolutely powerless.”
~Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Mississippi God Damn…Again
Mississippi Burning…Again
Ghosts Of Mississippi Ain’t Dead…
Nearly 54 years after the traumatic lynching of Emmett Till which shocked the nation and galvanized the Modern American Civil Rights Movement, the son of one of the lawyers who defended Till’s murderers organizes another lynch mob in Tallahatchie County out for blood…
This isn’t a Hollywood movie…Nor is this Wilmington, NC, 1898; Elaine, Arkansas, 1919; Tulsa, Ok, 1921; Rosewood, Fl, 1923…This happened Thursday, August 20, 2009 in Sumner, Ms, in Tallahatchie County…Yes the same county where a young Black boy named Emmett Till met his doom/destiny some 54 years ago this week…This time a young Black man named William Pittman,28 years old, of Tutwiler, MS, was the target of an unauthorized manhunt by a law official and his posse of “deputized” gun toting thugs…
Sometime Thursday, August 20, 2009, Pittman & his friend McKeel Scott (at the time of this writing his whereabouts is still unknown) were accused by John Whitten III, the District Attorney of Tallahatchie County, of burglarizing the home of a neighbor and quite possible a relative…According to several sources, the boys were not actually caught in anybody’s home at that time, but were still accused. This supposed act infuriated Mr. Whitten, whose father, John Whitten Jr., was the defense attorney for the killers of Emmett Till (the brothers J.W. Milam & Roy Bryant), and so instead of going through the proper channels he decided to seek his own brand of vigilante justice, southern style.
He organized a militia of what could best be described as a lynch mob. Some of these men were actual law enforcement officers while others such as the case of an unidentified white maintenance man from Tutwiler, MS, simply wore a police uniform and was given a police car along with plenty of booze, guns and ammunition. Even the K-9 unit from the Department of Corrections at the notorious Parchman State Penitentiary was alerted for this mission. In addition to the man, fire and canine power, Whitten deployed two military tanks for the purpose of hunting down Mr. William Pittman as well.
Around 5pm on Thursday evening, William Pittman was Public Enemy # 1 of the Magnolia State as far as Whitten was concerned. Whitten proceeded to chase Pittman with his posse of dogs, firepower and tanks for what seem to be several hours and a hauntingly surreal event for anybody who witnessed the spectacle…As bullets and missiles were whistling all around him, William Pittman had the presence of mind to run into a field and drop to the ground to cover himself in mud and grass.
Not knowing where Pittman was hiding with the only visible evidence being footprints that seemed to lead to nowhere, by this time the would-be executioners, literally drunken with sadistic power as well as large quantities of alcohol, out of frustration of not being able to find the wily Pittman, began to shoot wildly into and around the field with their 50 caliber machine guns, assault rifles and tanks.
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Is this the position of the University of Minnesota/UROC and the Northside Partnership about North Minneapolis? Can you help us understand?
On last Thursday (7/16), a meeting of the Willard-Homewood Organization (WHO) was held at NorthPoint to hear a presentation from local Northside businessman and Ward 5 city council candidate Lennie Chism about his purchase and plans for the old Uncle Bills Food Store that has been the subject of heated controversy.
Sources sent IBNN the following email from north side resident and University of Minnesota employee Michelle Lewis that she sent former Minneapolis City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes and Bev Roberts.
It reads (unedited):
From: Michelle Lewis
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 10:13 AM
To: Beverly Roberts; Jackie Cherryhomes
Subject: tidbit about Lennie/NorthPoint
Hi, Bev and Jackie–
I just got off the phone with Tim Hammett, and he told me a kind of interesting anecdote: Tim had gone down to check out a report that the boards were off of Uncle Bill’s and someone was in the building, It turned out to be Lennie, showing the building to a man from NorthPoint. Tim had a chance to talk with the NorthPoint representative alone for a minute, and it turns out that Lennie had neglected to mention to NorthPoint that the building was slated for demolition in late July or early August, and that this was at the request of the city council.
To me, the significance of this tidbit is that if NorthPoint goes along with Lennie’s project, knowing him to have withheld a vital piece of information like this, that accepting this level of dishonesty from a partner would be a serious dereliction of NorthPoint’s public trust–not to mention financial accountability.
So far, I’ve contacted Don & MaryAnn (right behind Uncle Bill’s), Andy Doucette (right across the street, on the corner), Barb Bergeron, Carol Olson, and Kathy Godfrey, so hopefully they will e-mail Stella Whitney-West in the next few days. MaryAnn was planning on calling her.
ok, now i’m going to take Bev’s advice and *breathe*! lol
Michelle
**********************************
Michelle Lewis
Teaching and Grants Support
Genetics, Cell Biology and Development
University of Minnesota
6-160 Jackson Hall
321 Church St. SE.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
# # #
Did the University of Minnesota give official permission or approval for the course of action in this email? The email is miss-leading and unethical.
It looks like Ms. Lewis doesn’t have enough work to do at the U of M – she has made a “quantum leap” in stating that the employee did not know about the scheduled demo, which doesn’t mean NorthPoint management and board of directors didn’t know.
This email was then forwarded by Cherryhomes to her political pundits with the following statement: (Unedited)
Fr: “Jackie Cherryhomes”
To: “Velez, Jose E.” <Jose.Velez@ci.minneapolis.mn.us>, <don1samuels@net>, <Karen.Dziedzic@co.hennepin.mn.us>, <mark.stenglein@co.hennepin.mn.us>
Subject: tidbit about Lennie/NorthPoint
Hi Folks:
I just want you to be in the loop on all the exciting activities out here. I don’t understand Northpoint’s continued involvement in this.
# # #
What was the real message in Cherryhomes last sentence sent to Dziedzic, Samuels and Stenglein?
With the email and “whisper” campaign moving forward IBNN is concerned what role a U of M employee has sending out emails to Cherryhomes and Roberts in what looks like an official capacity, rather than using a Gmail, Yahoo or Comcast account.
Another point to make: The University of Minnesota is doing its best to react to community concerns and issues from backing out of the NorthPoint deal to doing damage control with the seniors at Rainbow Terrence Senior high-rise who have complained that the original agreement to get them to a grocery store has turned into a less than desirable agreement with some residents waiting weeks to shop for groceries.
It also concerns us that allegedly McCormack & Barron is planning on entering back into north Minneapolis with thoughts of developing a senior high-rise. (McCormick & Barron is one of the developers on Heritage Park when Jackie Cherryhomes was Minneapolis City Council president…put it together!).
Phone calls to McCormick and Barron and interviews with local residents, businesses and politicians about Jackie Cherryhomes involvement in Heritage Park and the deal cut will be a topic in an upcoming IBNN exclusive feature.
What is the involvement with Cherryhomes and the Harrison Neighborhood?
IBNN is concerned that Uncle Bill’s re-opening has now become a “race” issue and an attack on Black business in north Minneapolis.
Yes, there is crime. There are drugs – but if social service agencies and local government have not provided ample opportunity for youth of all color to be gainfully employed, this denotes “other options” to survive.
Rather than wasting your time condemning Uncle Bill’s call your local political and ask him, “Why does north Minneapolis still suck?”
North Minneapolis only sees economic stimuli in the form of liquor stores, barber shops, beauty salons. There is nothing in north Minneapolis to attract anyone from the outside to come here and shop, eat or live.
IBNN alleges that Lewis and Cherryhomes have a covert plan without giving full disclosure to the community of north Minneapolis.
“Black people have nothing over north, not even the Minneapolis Urban League,” says long-time north Minneapolis resident Danny Walker. “Why are the White people in north Minneapolis so down on the Blacks who want to make Uncle Bills something great? Someone must have another plan,” says Walker…”Oops, there it is!”
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