The Mighty Anchor

“The Mighty Anchor”
Rhonda Skillern-Jones with Sheretta Jones-Manning/2002 Forest Brook Honors Graduate/Texas
State Champion in Track/NCAA All-American in Track/Honors Graduate at The University of Texas
at Austin.
There was time when our North Forest Youth Track Stars from the early 90’s to the mid 2000’s, had the same Anchor Leg that finished
off all of their relays. Enter the world of HISD School Board President, Rhonda Skillern-Jones.
All of our youth who ran through Track Houston Track Club, know first hand about the care and concern that she has bestowed upon
them. She was on the track with them during practice, meets, wins, and losses. Even now, she is a mainstay in their lives. From what I
can recall, our community dispersed sprinters and hurdlers, but Rhonda Skillern-Jones was the distance runner.
She has been the anchor for all of the relays, boys and girls. When we lost our district, and HISD took the reigns, I was delighted when
I found out that she was a member of the school board and was assigned to our schools. The motherly love that she bestowed upon
our Youth in that Summer Track Program was now going to be shared with all of our children!
A popular term in Track & Field is called being walked down. It can happen in any running event, but more so in a relay, especially on
the Anchor Leg. There are some people who are trying to do just that to Rhonda Skillern-Jones today, but in a professional and/or
personal sense. But little do they know that she is not only the HISD School Board President, but she has also been a Mighty Anchor
for a long time and never got walked down. She was the one that walked down everyone else!!!!!!!
: Ray Burton

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Their Ancestors Were on Opposite Sides of a Lynching. Now, They’re Friends.
“The hanging.”
For years, Karen Branan, a white woman from Georgia, kept at a safe distance the haunting words that her grandmother had spoken. Ms.
Branan was an inquisitive journalist, but she refused to explore a hanging that her grandmother had said was one of her most unforgettable
memories. She was afraid of what she might learn.
But in 1986, when she learned that she was going to have a racially mixed grandchild, Ms. Branan felt compelled to dig up the truth. She
discovered that her relatives had been part of a mob that had lynched four black people — three men and a woman — in Hamilton, Ga.,
in 1912.
Ms. Branan turned what she learned into a book, “The Family Tree,” that was published two years ago.
The book eventually made its way into the hands of Jackie Jordan Irvine, an Alabama native and a professor emeritus of urban education
at Emory University. Ms. Irvine, who is black, came across the name of her ancestor Milford Moore. He was related to John Moore, one
of the lynching victims.
The connection caught her by surprise.
She had never heard of the lynching or that a relative had been a victim. So Ms. Irvine sent an email to Ms. Branan, and the two have
struck up an unlikely friendship: a black woman whose ancestor was lynched, and a white woman whose ancestors did the killing.
The two grew up in neighboring cities — Ms. Irvine, 70, in Phenix City, Ala., and Ms. Branan, 76, in Columbus, Ga. With the racial divide,
they lived worlds apart.
The two joined us on Facebook Live on Wednesday night for a discussion about history, their relationship and race in the South. Here are
some excerpts from the conversation.
Ms. Irvine, on her reaction to learning of the lynching:
“It was shocking. I didn’t know how to feel about it. But immediately, I thought about my grandmother, who we just loved dearly, what must
have happened when she knew that this event had occurred in this county.
“They lynched them on the grounds of the black Friendship Baptist Church. You can’t get any more horrific than lynching people on the
black church grounds. It wasn’t just the four victims, it was an entire black community that was absolutely terrorized by this event.”
Ms. Branan explained that her distant cousin Norman Hadley, a nephew of the local sheriff, had been murdered. Mr. Hadley was known
for chasing after young women, and he was in pursuit of a 14-year-old black girl. The three black men lynched were close to the girl —
her preacher, the Rev. Burrell Hardaway; her father, Eugene Harrington; and her boyfriend, John Moore. They had been accused, without
proof, of murdering Mr. Hadley.
“This was an era in which W.E.B. DuBois in The Crisis, the magazine that he edited, was calling for black men to protect black women,
and to, quote, risk lynching if need be to do this. So Burrell Hardaway was preaching, calling out Norman Hadley by name.
“They all looked suspicious, but guess what, they were not. Later, we found out that a white man had killed Norman Hadley. He was also
chasing this 14-year-old.”
Ms. Branan said that the woman who was lynched, Loduska Crutchfield, was believed to be the first female lynching victim in Georgia.

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“She was not a suspect in Norman’s murder, but she was supposed to be a star witness. She refused, she refused, so she was a martyr.”
Ms. Branan also learned of a surprising racial back story. Mr. Moore, the youngest of the victims, was a distant cousin of hers because
one of her white ancestors had children with a black woman. Her white family members knew they were killing a black family member.
“What I discovered was that the racially mixed Moore family was very much involved with the so-called white Moore family up to the time
of this lynching. This lynching was, in and of itself, a message lynching to say to black and white people: ‘Segregate. We are changing,
the South is changing. You must separate now.’ It was a very violent laying down of a line in the sand to keep us apart from one another.”
Ms. Irvine said she was eager to meet Ms. Branan. With the South’s widespread, insidious history of racial hatred, Ms. Irvine could not
hold anything against Ms. Branan.
“I wasn’t angry about it. These things happened. I was very grateful that Karen had given me a gift. She had given me a gift of connecting
me to some of my ancestors that I didn’t know much about. I’m angry about racism. I’m angry about racial terror. I didn’t personalize it in
terms of Karen being a descendant of the slave owners because, otherwise, I’d be a very mad sister.”
Together, the two women visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial in Montgomery, Ala., honoring lynching
victims.
Ms. Branan said that the story of the lynching her family was involved in, along with others, was not just a historical tale.
“The past has not passed. It’s still with us. It’s with us in different forms. Some of those forms are even more pernicious than the old forms.
We are living in the past because we have not addressed the past. We have not atoned for the past. We have not even educated ourselves
about the past.”
“Black lives didn’t matter then in 1912 when they lynched my cousin John Moore. Twenty-one-year-old black men in America, now they’ve
been lynched in another kind of way. Even if you didn’t own slaves, even if your family never attended a lynching or watched it or whatever,
white people have benefited politically, socially and economically from a system of slavery and oppression from Mississippi to Maine. It’s
not to make white people feel guilty, but it’s to accept the privilege that’s been awarded through a system of oppression.”
By: John Eligon, New York Times

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Woman says she called police when black Airbnb guests didn't wave at her
(CNN) At first, Kelly Fyffe-Marshall's stay in Rialto, California, was ending pretty normally. She and her three friends -- two of them African-
American like her -- checked out of their Airbnb rental and dragged their luggage to their vehicle.
Then things got weird. Seven police cars showed up. The neighborhood was seemingly locked down. Then things got scary. The police
told Fyffe-Marshall and her friends to put their hands in the air, and then informed them a helicopter was tracking them.
.
Why all the commotion? Someone had called the police on them, thinking they might be burglars. 'You want to laugh ... but it's not funny'
Fyffe-Marshall, a filmmaker, detailed her experience in a Facebook post that caught fire this past weekend. "A neighbor across the street
saw 3 black people packing luggage into their car and assumed we were stealing from the house. She then called the police," Fyffe-
Marshall wrote. "At first we joked about the misunderstanding and took photos and videos along the way. About 20 minutes into this misunderstanding
it escalated almost instantly."
A police sergeant showed up, Fyffe-Marshall says in her account, and said he didn't know what Airbnb was. The group showed the police
their booking confirmations and phoned the home's landlord to convince police they were telling the truth. The entire episode lasted a
frustratingly long 45 minutes, she said. "We have been dealing with different emotions and you want to laugh about this but it's not funny,"
she wrote. "The trauma is real. I've been angry, frustrated and sad. I was later detained at the airport. This is insanity." Rialto Police Lt.
Dean Hardin told CNN the person who called police was an elderly white woman, and she did not recognize the group as being her neighbors.
Hardin could not speak to the allegation the group was targeted due to their race. "I cannot get into the caller's head, beyond that
she thought she was seeing a crime," Hardin said.
Police said in a news release the encounter took 22 minutes and that "through reasonable inquiry officers learned the residence was an
unlicensed Airbnb." The group were "immediately released without incident" after the incident, the release states. "At no time during the
encounter did officers use any form of restraints with the involved people and actually allowed them to exit their vehicle and assist officers
in locating the owner of the unlicensed Airbnb," the release reads. On Monday, the release said, the Rialto Police Department was served
with a notification of pending legal action on behalf of Donisha Prendergast, who police said is the granddaughter of singer/songwriter
Bob Marley. Fyffe-Marshall and a man, Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan, were also listed on the legal notification with Prendergast.
CNN contacted Fyffe-Marshall, who said her attorney, who also is representing the other two friends, told them not to comment at this
time. While the department said it is now "limited in response," it said in the release that the department "was a pioneer in the nation's implementation
of Axon body worn officer cameras." Airbnb said in a statement to CNN that it has reached out to the friends to "express our
sympathy and full support." The company also said what happened was "unconscionable and a reminder of how far we still have to go as
a society."
"Airbnb's mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere and we have aggressively worked to fight bias and discrimination
in society," the company's statement said. "We are also reaching out to our partners at the NAACP, National Action Network, Color Of
Change, and others to discuss this matter and ensure we are doing all we can to protect our community when they travel."
Other incidents
The incident in California is one of a several across the country recently in which people of color have been either arrested or detained by
police for seemingly innocuous acts:
-- Two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month after a manager called 911 on them because they didn't order
anything. The men said they were waiting on an acquaintance. They were later released with no charges filed against them. Starbucks'
CEO apologized and the company reached an undisclosed settlement with the men.
-- A pair of Native American teens on a college tour of Colorado State University were briefly detained by police last week after the
parent of another prospective student on the tour called 911 because she said the teens made her "nervous." School officials apologized.
-- A group of black woman said a golf course in Pennsylvania called the police after accusing them of playing too slowly.
-- LA Fitness apologized to two black men who were booted from a gym in New Jersey and had the police called on them amid racial
profiling allegations.

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“The cops were called on me for flying while fat & Black”
Amber Phillips stepped on an American Airlines flight from Raleigh-Durham to Washington on Thursday evening and immediately noticed
how small the plane was. There were 65 seats, just two in each row.
When Phillips sat down, her arm rested next to that of the passenger in the adjacent seat, she said. Their arms were touching.
“I was thinking, I really hope she doesn’t treat me mean,” said Phillips, 28, who lives in Washington. “She was fidgeting, and finally she
looks at me and goes, ‘Can you move over?’”
Phillips told her: “No, I actually can’t. I’m in the window seat.”
Phillips said she noticed the woman was growing increasingly annoyed at the tight space they were in.
“I wasn’t going to say anything because I know how hard it is for people who are perceived as fat to say, ‘I was mistreated,’” said Phillips,
who shared her experience in a series of viral tweets, including one that said “The cops were called on me for flying while fat & Black.”
But soon, Philips decided not to hold her tongue. As the flight progressed, the woman rested her ankle on her own her knee, so the bottom
of her foot was facing Phillips, she said.
Phillips said she felt that the woman was trying to push her closer to the window.
“I said, ‘you’re being awful, don’t let the bottom of your foot touch me,’” Phillips said.
The woman, Phillips said, responded.
“She turned my words and said I was being mean,” said Phillips, co-host of the podcast “The Black Joy Mixtape.”
Things were tense.
“The whole time I was sitting there I was trying not to cry,” Phillips said. “I dropped my headphones and I was afraid to pick them up.”
Phillips said she then grabbed her cellphone and started recording the woman on the plane. The woman tried to block her face from
Phillips’s camera. Then the woman complained to a flight attendant about Phillips, she said.
They got off the plane at Reagan National Airport and headed to a shuttle bus that would bring them to a terminal.
Phillips said she was surprised moments later when a flight attendant announced that she was calling the police.
An officer with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police arrived and approached Phillips and told her to get off the shuttle,
she said. He told her he was called for an assault investigation and asked her some questions. After a few minutes, the officer told both
Phillips and the other woman they could leave. The incident delayed Phillips about 30 minutes, she said.
“All of this because my arm was touching this woman,” Phillips said.
The Washington Post could not locate the woman or identify her. Neither the airline, nor the police who were eventually called, would release
her name.
In a news release American Airlines said: “Two passengers seated next to each other engaged in a verbal altercation while on board.
Upon landing in DCA shortly after 8 p.m. ET, one of the passengers requested the flight attendant contact law enforcement.”
Airline spokeswoman Kristen Foster said that American employees had “an obligation” to call the police. “We contacted law enforcement
at the request of another passenger on the flight,” she said in an email. “We have an obligation to contact law enforcement if any passenger
requests it (just as we would if someone requested medical assistance, for example).”
MWAA police said they were called because of an “in-flight incident.”
“Assistance was requested following an in-flight incident involving two passengers, which continued on an American Airlines shuttle bus
at Reagan National Airport. … Both passengers complied with police requests and it was determined that there was no immediate threat
to passenger safety. There were no arrests, no charges were filed and both passengers continued on their way.”
Phillips said she was scared, upset and shaken.
“White people literally need to stop calling the cops on black people who make them uncomfortable,” she said. “They’re calling the cops
like they need to speak to the manager or something. You’re not allowed to call the cops for things that aren’t true.”
By: Allison Klein, The Washington Post

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HOW TO HEAL YOURSELF FROM EMOTIONAL UPHEAVAL THROUGH WRITING
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Are you dealing with an emotionally difficult situation, like the loss of a relationship or stress on the job?
Try writing about it, says Dr. James W. Pennebaker. Your immune system may be strengthened, you may start sleeping better, and you
may increase your social connections, among other positive improvements.
“When people are given the opportunity to write about emotional upheavals, they often experience improved health,” says Dr. Pennebaker.
“They go to the doctor less. They have changes in immune function. If they are first-year college students, their grades tend to go up.
People will tell us months afterward that it’s been a very beneficial experience for them.”
Dr. Pennebaker is a professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a pioneer in the study of using
expressive writing as a path to healing, and he is the author of Opening Up and Writing to Heal.
“Emotional upheavals touch every part of our lives,” Dr. Pennebaker says. “You don’t just lose a job, you don’t just get divorced. These
things affect all aspects of who we are — our financial situation, our relationships with others, our views of ourselves, our issues of life
and death. Writing helps us focus and organize the experience.”
Why introverts write
Writing isn’t just for introverts, but many introverts enjoy writing because it’s a solitary activity, and it allows them to delve into their inner
world of thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
“Writing is something you do alone,” writes John Green, the author of the award-winning novel The Fault in Our Stars. “It’s a profession
for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.”
“Writing is utter solitude,” writes novelist Franz Kafka, “the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.”
Why it works
Our minds are designed to make sense of our experiences, and when we undergo a traumatic event, our minds have to work overtime to
process what happened to us. These thoughts may keep us awake at night, we may become distracted at work, or we may feel less connected
to our friends, family, or significant other. Writing about a difficult experience forces us to translate it into words, making it easier
for our minds to grasp that experience.
Other health benefits of writing
Writing has other health benefits, too. It may help our working memory improve, which is basically the ability to think about more than one
thing at a time. As we release our thoughts and emotions through writing, we may be able to focus on other people afterward, which will
improve our relationships.
It’s not just Dr. Pennebaker who has documented the healing benefits of writing. A study on the emotional and physical health benefits of
expressive writing found that participants who wrote about traumatic, stressful, or emotional events for just 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions
showed improvements in both physical and psychological health.
Writing may even make physical wounds heal faster. In one study, 49 healthy adults aged 64-97 years old wrote about either upsetting
events or neutral daily activities for 20 minutes, three days in a row. Researchers then waited two weeks, to make sure any negative
feelings stirred up by recalling stressful events had passed, and biopsied the subjects’ arms. They used photographs to track the patients’
healing over 21 days. On the 11th day, 76 percent of the group that did expressive writing about upsetting events had fully healed as compared
with 42 percent of the control group, which wrote about neutral activities.
“We think writing about distressing events helped participants make sense of the events and reduce distress,” says Elizabeth Broadbent,
professor of medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and co-author of the study.
Don’t overdo it
But be careful not to overdo it, warns Dr. Pennebaker.
“I’m not convinced that having people write every day is a good idea,” he says. “I’m not even convinced that people should write about a
horrible event for more than a couple of weeks. You risk getting into a sort of navel gazing or cycle of self-pity. But standing back every
now and then and evaluating where you are in life is really important.”
Also, don’t write about traumatic events that have happened recently, or write about more than you think you can handle at the moment.
The effects of expressive writing can be powerful.
The biggest payoff
What kind of writing was related to the biggest healing payoff? Writing that transformed the messy thoughts, feelings, and events of the
emotional upheaval into story form.
“People who are able to construct a story, to build some kind of narrative over the course of their writing seem to benefit more than those
who don’t,” Pennebaker says. “In other words, if on the first day of writing, people’s stories are not very structured or coherent, but over
the three or four days they are able to come up with a more structured story, they seem to benefit the most.”
Telling the story from someone else’s perspective also was related to healing:
“So one day they may be talking about how they feel and how they see it,” Dr. Pennebaker says, “but the next day they may talk about
what’s going on with others, whether it’s their family or a perpetrator or someone else. Being able to switch back and forth [among other
people’s perspectives] is a very powerful indicator of how they progress.”
Dr. Pennebaker’s writing assignment

Over the next four days, write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the emotional upheaval. In your writing, really let go and
and explore the event and how it has affected you. You might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents,
people you have loved or love now, or even your career. Write continuously for 20 minutes.
More writing tips
Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed.
Write continuously for at least 20 minutes.
Don’t worry about spelling and grammar.
Write only for yourself.
Write about something personal and important to you.
Deal only with events or situations you can handle now.
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I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you
need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame. By: Alice Walker

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Prom isn't a fantasy, it's a reflection of our (racist) reality
(CNN)It's prom season again: your social media is about to be overrun with pictures of teenagers in formal clothes and giant smiles,
maybe evoking "Pretty in Pink" or "Carrie," depending on your high school experience. As a high school teacher, I have a ringside view of
the whole event; I see how easily it can change from one person's celebration to another person's sorrow.
There's no shortage of ways that proms have been impacted by the same prejudices that mar society at large. Instances of segregation,
homophobia, and racism have, for many students, tarnished the occasion. Just recently, Nordstrom Rack apologized to African-American
teenagers who were falsely accused of stealing from a store where they were shopping for shirts for prom.
Even before the actual dance, there's the flood of what have come to be known as "promposals" -- the carefully planned invitations meant
to guarantee an acceptance. Similar to the marriage proposals on which they are modeled, most of these involve flowers, favorite foods,
elaborate signs and costumes, and maybe a strategically employed horse-drawn carriage.
But this year, one high school senior in Sarasota, Florida, got plenty of attention for his racist "promposal." He asked a girl to the prom by
holding up a sign (photographed and later posted to social media) reading, "If I was black I'd be picking cotton, but I'm white so I'm picking
u 4 Prom?" His school district issued a statement about rejection of prejudice and told a CNN affiliate they would work with groups like the
NAACP to develop a forum to talk about race.
That's a good start, but it's not even close to enough. This boy's use of a noxious racial stereotype as a "promposal" punchline is a troubling
sign of casual prejudice. It's not the first. Last year, a student dressed in blackface for his invitation and another created a poster reading
"Do u wanna be like a n----- and hang at PROM?" with an illustration of a lynching. We yell for a little while, get distracted, then move on
until next year, when it likely happens again.
America's schools and families are clearly in desperate need of more -- many more -- open conversations about racism, prejudice, and
how "just joking" may not feel like a joke to someone else. It's great to be willing to host a forum, but just being willing doesn't get the job
done: doing the work, even if it's difficult, gets it done. Don't say you're open or amenable. Say "we're doing this now and here's what we
plan to accomplish by doing it
Schools can help make prom season less likely to turn racist and exclusionary by modeling acceptance and readiness to have the hard
talks, the ones that are uncomfortable but necessary. Maybe that would help to prevent incidents like the 2015 "promposal" in which a
senior made his move with a costume explosive vest and a sign that said he was "the bomb." The student, who described himself as
Middle Eastern, said that he found the resulting suspension racist; he didn't believe other students would have faced the same consequences.
Willingness to sit with discomfort is critical, something 18-year-old Keziah Daum learned after tweeting prom photos of herself wearing a
traditional Chinese outfit (despite her lack of Chinese ancestry). Her tweets went viral worldwide and provoked an enormous debate about
cultural appropriation. Daum told Buzzfeed, "I never imagined a simple rite of passage such as a prom would cause a discussion reaching
many parts of the world. ... Perhaps it is an important discussion we need to have."
She's more right than she probably knows. We need to confront stereotypes, address where they come from and think about what they
mean now. As a high school teacher, I've seen my students squirm when we read "To Kill a Mockingbird." But when I recently asked them
whether they felt the book still had a place in the curriculum, almost all of them said "yes" because it showed them a time in history that
we needed to grow past and, in doing so, forced conversations about race issues today.
Adults in all parts of a kid's life -- school, sports, religious organizations or elsewhere -- need to be prepared to make ourselves vulnerable
and speak up personally about racism. Yes, calling out prejudiced thinking on social media helps, but talking privately is likelier to lead to
a real dialogue and not just internet posturing.
It's not an easy thing to do. I don't have the same views on immigration as other members of my family, for instance -- and we've had occasions
when talk has grown heated. But our private conversations are way more productive than the back-and-forth feuds that develop
on Facebook or Twitter. I've learned that we understand each other face-to-face in a way that we can't seem to online.
We can't be different people online from who we are in person. As a teacher and parent, I can imagine the backlash that would tear through
my community if a "promposal" here involved Chinese food, fried chicken and watermelon, or references to cotton. When I looked at these
incidents now documented forever on the internet, picture after picture of smiling prejudice, I thought, why are these girls standing there
condoning this? Their beaming acceptance was as disturbing as -- maybe more than -- the misguided thinking behind the proposals. Sure,
they're thrilled to be going to the prom, anticipating the thrill of being princess for a night. But at the cost of someone else's dignity? Prom
is supposed to be a magical event; it doesn't take that much effort to exercise a small bit of empathy and consider how that "joke" kills the
magic for others.
It's not being "overly sensitive" or "politically correct" to say that these purposefully public declarations are hurtful. They lead people to
take sides, excusing or condemning, but inevitably dividing. And for what? For an invitation meant to inspire admiration and envy on social
media. For a dance that is supposed to be a crowning celebration of an education completed. Clearly, we all have a lot more to learn and
a lot more work to do.

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#MeToo is succeeding where others failed -- to mute R. Kelly
By Doug Criss, CNN
(CNN) R. Kelly is still singing, but in the #MeToo era his voice is getting more and more muffled.
As the R&B singer prepares for a scheduled concert Friday night in North Carolina amid persistent allegations of sexual
misconduct, his career is under siege on multiple fronts.
-- Streaming service Spotify is removing Kelly's music from all its playlists and algorithmic recommendations, such as
Discover Weekly. His songs will remain on Spotify, but the service will no longer promote them to its 70 million subscribers.
"We don't censor content because of an artist's or creator's behavior, but we want our editorial decisions -- what we
choose to program -- to reflect our values," Spotify said in a statement Thursday. "When an artist or creator does something
that is especially harmful or hateful, it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator."
-- Protesters are trying to get his Greensboro, North Carolina, show canceled. Nine local groups sent a letter this week
to the Greensboro Coliseum, urging promoters to "do the right thing" and cancel the show. The effort comes a week
after a scheduled concert by Kelly in Chicago was canceled -- something Kelly himself blamed on "rumors" in a video
he posted on social media.
A handful of North Carolina groups have vowed to protest the Greensboro show in person if it's not canceled. A
spokesman for the Greensboro Coliseum declined to comment.
-- A growing chorus of celebrities are urging the entertainment industry to cut ties with him. They include singer John
Legend, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, actress Viola Davis and rapper Vince Staples. There's even a hashtag, #MuteRKelly,
around the informal online movement.
Through it all, Kelly remains defiant. But how much longer can his career survive?
What he's accused of
Kelly, 51, one of the biggest R&B stars of the 1990s, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement sent to CNN on Thursday, his management team said, "He is innocent of the false and hurtful accusations
in the ongoing smear campaign against him, waged by enemies seeking a payoff. He never has been convicted
of a crime, nor does he have any pending criminal charges against him."
But the singer's reputation has long been tainted by accusations of sexual criminality.
· In 2002, he was indicted on child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping himself having
sex with an unidentified underage girl. The case went to trial in 2008 and Kelly was acquitted.
· In 2017, a 24-year-old woman alleged she had a sexual relationship with Kellywhen she was 16.
Kelly denied the accusation and no criminal charges were filed.
· An explosive Buzzfeed article last July claimed the singer was holding a group of adult women
against their will as part of what some of their parents said was a "cult." Kelly would not comment, but his attorney dismissed
the "debunked" allegations in an email to Buzzfeed. One of the women later denied publicly that she was being
"brainwashed" by Kelly and said "I'm totally fine."

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· And a BBC documentary released in March featured an interview with a woman who claimed to
be a former girlfriend of Kelly and described a "sex dungeon" in which the singer forced her and other women to
perform sex acts. The BBC says Kelly's reps declined to comment.
For years Kelly has weathered the allegations and continued to record and tour. But the recent #MeToo and #TimesUp
movements, ignited by allegations of sexual violence against Harvey Weinstein and other powerful entertainment figures,
have increased pressure to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes.
After last month's guilty verdict in Bill Cosby's assault trial, some social media users are saying the singer should be
prosecutors' next celebrity target.
What Kelly says
Last month, the #TimesUp movement called on various entertainment businesses, including RCA Records, Spotify
and Apple Music, to stop doing business with the singer.
In response Kelly's manager issued a statement, saying the entertainer "supports the pro-women goals of the Time's
Up movement" and calling the allegations against him an "attempted public lynching of a black man who has made
extraordinary contributions to our culture."
On Thursday, Kelly's management team condemned Spotify's decision to downplay the singer's music.
"Spotify is adopting a new 'Hate Content & Hateful Conduct' policy. R. Kelly never has been accused of hate, and the
lyrics he writes express love and desire," it said.
"Spotify has the right to promote whatever music it chooses, and in this case its actions are without merit. It is acting
based on false and unproven allegations. It is bowing to social-media fads and picking sides in a fame-seeking dispute
over matters that have nothing to do with serving customers.
"Meanwhile, though, Spotify promotes numerous other artists who are convicted felons, others who have been arrested
on charges of domestic violence and artists who sing lyrics that are violent and anti-women in nature. Mr. Kelly falls
into none of these categories..."
What happens next
However, people in the entertainment industry appear to be distancing themselves from the singer. Recent media reports
say Kelly's lawyer, publicist, and longtime assistant have all severed ties with the R&B singer. Kelly's current
manager did not respond to a request for comment.
Now Kelly is facing headwinds as a live performer. A handful of his concerts were canceled last summer after the Buzzfeed
article surfaced. Kelly's Facebook page lists only one upcoming concert -- the Greensboro show.
And protesters there say they are ready.
"The coliseum needs to hold the artist accountable and know they are hosting a sexual predator who has committed
acts consisting of statutory rape and the sexual conditioning of young African American girls," said the letter by the
nine local groups, including North Carolina Black Women's Roundtable, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, North Carolina
Women United and the YWCA of Greensboro.
"We hope the Greensboro Coliseum will do the right thing by canceling the concert, followed by establishing justicecentered
policies and procedures to help plan any future events," they added. "However, if the Greensboro Coliseum
decides to stand on the wrong side of this issue, we will be standing outside the venue to protest his appearance."

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(CNN)Hip-hop star Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter said that the #MeToo movement "had to happen for the world to purge itself."
In an interview with CNN's Van Jones on the premiere of his program, "The Van Jones Show," Jay-Z compared #MeToo with civil rights
struggles.
"It's like racism -- it existed the whole time. ... It's almost like we normalized it. The normalization of the things we have to do to survive,"
he said .
"I believe everything happens for a reason. Everything is a learning experience -- the good, bad and ugly. You know, this had to happen
to purge itself," he added.
The rapper expressed sympathy for women forced to work in environments where "abuse was happening every day" and who felt powerless
to change it.
"What's the alternative? You have to survive in America," he said, adding that "things needed to be uncovered for the world to correct
itself."
Jay-Z, who shares three children -- two girls and a boy -- with his wife, singer Beyoncé, also talked about the love he had for his firstborn
daughter, Blue Ivy.
"She's special," he told Jones. "She's someone who's definitely been here before. Everyone says that about her. She's so intuitive to her
feelings and how other people feel."
The rapper described how the 6-year-old had recently started crying at their Los Angeles home after seeing smoke from the devastating
California wildfires.
"She said, 'I don't want anybody to be hurt.' That's the type of human being she is at such a young age," he said.
Asked by Jones whether he believes the #MeToo movement made the world better for his children, Jay-Z said he is "hopeful" for his
daughters.
"The amount of information that we'll give them and the amount of love -- between those two things, they'll be fine," he said.

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Oldest person in US dies at 114
HUNTINGDON, Pa. — A 114-year-old Pennsylvania woman who was the oldest person in the United States has died, according to a
funeral home.
The Robert D. Heath Funeral Home in Mount Union said that Delphine Gibson died Wednesday.
Lessie Brown, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 113, is now believed to be the oldest American, according to the Gerontology Research Group
in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Gibson, who had been living at a Huntingdon nursing home since 2004, when she was 100, attributed her long life to good food, her faith
in God and her church.
“Frances and I are saddened to hear of the passing of Delphine Gibson, America’s oldest citizen,” said Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. “She
was an incredible Pennsylvanian and she will be missed.”
Although she was blind and deaf near the end of her life, she still enjoyed singing and humming songs like “Amazing Grace,” nursing
home unit manager Miranda Glover told WJAC-TV in February 2017.
She took no medication except for a single vitamin a day, Glover said.
“She has an amazing spirit,” Glover said. “She always singing to us or sharing the gospel. She is a treasure to the nation.”
On her 112th birthday, Huntingdon Mayor Dee Dee Brown declared it “Delphine Gibson Week” in the borough.
Kammi Plummer, admissions director at AristaCare at Huntingdon Park, where Gibson lived most recently, told the Altoona Mirror she informed
Gibson when she became the oldest living American.
“She just kind of acted surprised and said, ‘You don’t say?'” Plummer said. “We also told her she was the prettiest. She just said, ‘I know
that.'”
Born Delphine Tucker on Aug. 17, 1903, in Ridgeway, South Carolina, she helped on her family’s farm until she married Taylor Gibson in
1928.
The couple lived for a time in North Carolina, then moved to Mount Union to join a growing community of African-Americans who came
up from the South to work in the area’s now-historic brickyards. The couple had three children.
Her husband worked at Harbison Walker Refractories for 20 years before retiring in 1962, according to his obituary. He died in 1980.
She became the country’s oldest person following the February 2017 death of 114-year-old Adele Dunlap, of Flemington, New Jersey.
Gibson’s funeral will be Saturday at Mount Hope Baptist Church in Mount Union.
By: The associated Press

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“ If you see me in a fight with a Bear, SAVE the BEAR.”

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