San Antonio Register (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 7, 1999 Page: 4 of 10
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Rameses School
315 N. Hackberry Street, San Antonio, Texas
(210) 223-3702 FAX (210) 223-4641
A change has come %
§111
Sin Artonto. TX78210
:, > v";(210) 048-2616 H*. - 534-2073 Ch. Bp&jj
Sunday School 10 A.M. - Wonhip 11:30 AM.
Sunday MgM 6:00 PM WT FiKhy CMr 7:1* PM
TW Study 7:10PM. ,..
greater Lave Missionary'Baptist Church
1534 Feck Street • 333-1117 » 333-1118
Rev. L. J. Gillespie, Pastol*
Mid-Week Services 7:00p.m.
Greater Love Missionary Baptist Chardi
"Where Love Abides”
Hackberry Street, San Antonio, Texas
A change has come
§111
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The City of San Antonio is look-
ing tor neighborhood associations,
| business organizations and other
community groups to participate m
the second year of the Neighbor-
hood Commercial Revitalization
(NCR) Program. The goal of the
NCR program is to revitalize the
economic and social fabric of tra-
ditional shopping areas and bring
back consumers, spending and
business investment.
Applications from community
groups are now being sought for
participation in the NCR Program.
These community groups, who
will have to meet certain criteria
including size of area, likelihood
of success and organizational sup-
port, will work in partnership with
the City’s Economic Development
Department to plan and manage
the redevelopment of their com-
mercial district. Four public meet-
ings have been scheduled to ad-
dress questiohs and concerns of
potential applicant groups:
Tuesday, January 5, 6:30-7:30
p.m. Barbara Jordan Community
Center, 2803 E. Commerce.
Thursday, January 7 6:30-7:30
p.m. Sonny Melendrez Commu-
nity Center, 5905 W. Commerce.
StF50«t???|i
Roy tones, Ir. offers some boxing advice, to young boxers at the San
Fernando Gym during the Amateur’s Showcase Boxer's Expo presented by
Home Box Office and Paragon Cable last month. The event coincided with
HBO’s premier of Sugar Ray Robinson. The Bright Lights and Dark
Shadows of a champion documentary at the Carver Cultural Center.
SAVING MUMIA
by Bernice Powell Jackson
I just returned from a large meet-
ing of the World Council of
Churches (WCC), where more
than 4,000 Christians from around
the world came together to wor-
ship, pray and deliberate. It is the
50th anniversary of the founding
of the WCC and it is also the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration of
Human Rights. So, it was appro-
priate that the churches chose to
say a word in support of human
rights.
in that statement in support of
human rights was a call for the
elimination of the death penalty,
^saying, ‘The WCC has long stood
^against the use of the death
* ipMlialty, but recourse to this ulti-
> mate form of punishment is often
j sought by victims in societies rid-
I den by crime and violence.” Sadly,
1 only a few days after these words
, of the church, this “ultimate form
* of punishment” seems to be even
* closer for one of the U.S. political
* prisoners, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
; The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is
£ well-known by many who monitor
S death row’ cases and has been
» watched closely by the African
» American community and by a
«'growing list of leaders in the
* church as well as by those in the
Z entertainment community. Many
£ of us believe that the case of Mu-
5 mia Abu-Jamal is a travesty of jus-
» tice and an important example of
2 why the death penalty is a viola-
» tion of human rights.
Abu-Jamal, a long-time journal-
ist and activist in the Philadelphia
•black community, was convicted
t982 of the murder of a potice-
l. The witnesses for the prose-
• cution were shown to have been
coerced or promised immunity or
non-prosecution of other cases.
One witness, who originally had
been threatened by police with the
loss of her children, later recanted
» her earlier testimony and then
found herself re-arrested when she
left the witness stand. Another,
who is one of two witnesses who
actually saw the shooting, says that
Abu-Jamal did not kill the officer
but that police refused to release
him until he signed their version of
second eye-
iously disap-
I
Finally, there is the judge in the
Mumia Abu-Jamal case. This
judge has sentenced more people
to death than any other sitting
judge in the United States. Indeed,
of the 222 people on death row in
Pennsylvania, 62% of them are
African American, while blacks
make up only 10% of the state’s
population. Philadelphia, the city
of brotherly love, has more in-
mates on death row than 26 other
states and nearly 84% of them are
African American. No wonder that
Supreme Court Justice Harry
Blackmun shortly before his retire-
ment wrote, “Even under the mogj>
sophisticated death penalty
statutes, race continues to play a
major role in determining who
shall live and who shall die.”
Despite all these discrepancies,
despite disputed testimony and [
missing witnesses, despite jury in- ,
equities and the pleas of thousands
of people, across this nation and
around the world, the Governor of
Pennsylvania has pledged to exe-
cute Mumia Abu-Jamal as soon as
possible, possibly during this holi-
day period when the eyes of the
public are turned elsewhere:
But the eyes of the one who
holds the real scales of justice are
never closed. The death penalty is
the ultimate form of punishment,
one which cannot be undone. And
in the past twenty years 70 death
row inmates were released after it
was found that they were, indeed,
ihqocent. Again, in the words of
Justice Blackmun, “From this day
forward I no longer shall tinker
with the machinery of death. For
more than 20 years I have endeav-
ored — indeed I have struggled...
to develop procedural and substan-
tive rules that would lend more
than the mere appearance of fair-
ness to the death penalty en-
deavor.”
Sadly, even the appearance of
fairness is absent front the Mumia
Abu-Jamal case. And without that
appearance the death penalty is
nothing but murder. It would be a
travesty to execute any human be-
ing during this season of peace It
would be a travesty toexecute Mu-
mia Abu-Jamal at any time.
(Note: You may write Governor
Thomas Ridge. Main Capitol
Building, Room 225, Harrisburg,
PA 17120 or
Admission for the event is $4 for
adults, $2 for children 3-12 years
old and senioik 65 years and over,
and free for children 2 years and
under.
During The Legacy of Africa,
Rick Hyman will present a slide
lecture on his exhibit My Texas
Family: Paintings by Rick Hy-
man. The exhibit was inspired by
a collection of vintage family pho-
tos from which the artist has
painted colorful and engaging im-
ages. Rick Hyman’s artwork is on
view through January 30 in
Lower Galleiy.
According to family oral history,
Hyman’s ancestors immigrated to
Texas as freed slavfes soon after
the end of the Civil War. Three
families— the Martins, Llgons,
and Robersons —came to Texas in
covered wagons in 1866. This
story became the subject of one of
Hyman’s paintings “Making Our
Way to Something Better.” A gen-
eration later, Hyman’s grandfa-
ther, Henderson Martin, owned
2,000 acres of land near Warren-
ton, TX, and became prosperous
as a cattle rancher and oilman.
In 1982 Rick Hyman inherited a
collections of family photographs
from an aunt who resided in Hous-
ton. The photographs were of his
grandfather, family, and friends.
Many historic photos have sur-
vived from this period, dating from
1912 to 1927. These vintage pho-
tos reflect the dress and demeanor
of the Martin family in their Sun-
day finery.
fax 717-783-1396.)
1
SNSTl
OF
Hyman has taken these some-
times dim and unfocused pho-
tographs and turned them into
large, colorful works of art. They
tell a story of the dignity, joy of
living, and celebrations of this
African-American rural commu-
nity of the early 20th century.
Gifted from an early age, Rick
Hyman has been painting since he
was three years old. He has won
prizes for his painting at The
Diura Gallery, Lynchburg Col-
lege, Virginia; and the Annual
» Mid-Atlantic Exhibition at the Art
lery of Fell’s Point in Balti-
Maryland.
at the
Avenue in New Yt
ion Station in
for j
The City is seeking the commit-
ment of community-based organi-
zations, which may be comprised
of merchants, property owners,
neighborhood residents and other
area stakeholders, to make the re-
vitalization program successful in
each commercial district.
Under the NCR Program, the
City will provide assistance
through three mqjor program com-
ponents. Revitalization Projects
include a three-year action plan
that includes implementation,
technical and financial, and infras-
tructure development assistance to
bring about a successful and sus-
tainable revitalization effort.
Three commercial districts will be
selected as revitalization projects
each year.
Partnership Projects call for an
action plan to assist commercial
districts with the organizational
development, capacity building
and consensus building activities
necessary for implementing suc-
cessful revitalization efforts.
An NCR Networking Group will
be established to provide training
and reference materials for pro-
gram participants.
Attendees can either recreate the
photo or embellish a copy of it
with artists’ tools. Finished prod-
ucts will be displayed at the Insti-
tute. Some photographs may also
be chosen for professional dupli-
cation and added to the permanent
Institute Photographic collection.
The University of Texas Institute
v<. . ilyiw a•*»
of .Texan Cultures is. an .educa-
tional center concerned with the
history and diverse cultures of
Texas. Open Tuesday through
Sunday, 9 am. to 5 p.m., the Insti-
tute is located at Bowie and Du-
rango on HemisFair Park in down-
town San Antonio. For more infor-
mation, the public should call 458-
2300.
it ■■m
«
m
!i
’
> */ was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the /wise Of the Lord."
Romans 10; 14 '135
JOES US FOR'WORSHIP
grant Memorial SVMfE Church
2001 W. Pop&rf 736-0571
Rev. Mattie B. Sayles, Pastor
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San Antonio Register (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 7, 1999, newspaper, January 7, 1999; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth842244/m1/4/?rotate=180: accessed July 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UT San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.