FrontPage Magazine | Sharpton Targets The Jefferson Memorial | Frontpage Mag FrontPage Magazine Racial arsonist Al Sharpton is demanding the federal government shut down the historic Jefferson Memorial in the nation's capital because the long-dead ... |
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Tawana Glenda Brawley (born 1972) is an African-American woman from Wappingers Falls, New York, who gained notoriety in 198788 for falsely accusing four white men of having raped her. The charges received widespread national attention because of her age (15), the persons accused (including police officers and a prosecuting attorney), and the state in which Brawley was found after the alleged rape. She was found in a trash bag, with racial slurs written on her body and covered in feces. Brawley's accusations were given widespread media attention in part from the involvement of her advisers, including the Reverend Al Sharpton and attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason.[1]
After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible sexual assault and that she herself may have created the appearance of such an attack.[2][3] The New York prosecutor whom Brawley had accused as one of her alleged assailants successfully sued Brawley and her three advisers for defamation.[3]
Brawley initially received considerable support from the African-American community.[4] Some suggested that Brawley was victimized by biased reporting that adhered to racial stereotypes.[5][6] The mainstream media's coverage drew heated criticism from the African-American press and many black leaders who showed no degree of skepticism or disbelief of the teenager and her story.[7] The grand jury's conclusions decreased support for Brawley and her advisers. Brawley's family has maintained that the allegations were true.
On November 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, who had been missing for four days from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York, was found seemingly unconscious and unresponsive, lying in a garbage bag several feet from an apartment where she had once lived. Her clothing was torn and burned, her body smeared with feces. She was taken to the emergency room, where the words "KKK", "nigger", and "bitch" were discovered written on her torso with a black substance described as charcoal.[2]
A detective from the Sheriff's Juvenile Aid Bureau, among others, was summoned to interview Brawley, but she remained unresponsive. The family requested a black officer, which the police department was able to provide. Brawley, described as having an "extremely spacey" look on her face, communicated with this officer with nods of the head, shrugs of the shoulder, and written notes. The interview lasted 20 minutes, during which she uttered only one word: "neon". Through gestures and writing, however, she indicated she had been raped repeatedly in a wooded area by three white men, at least one of whom, she claimed, was a police officer. A sexual assault kit was administered, and police began building a case. Brawley provided no names or descriptions of her assailants. She later told others that there had been no rape, only other kinds of sexual abuse. Forensic tests found no evidence that a sexual assault of any kind had occurred. There was no evidence of exposure to elements, which would have been expected in a victim held for several days in the woods at a time when the temperature dropped below freezing at night.[8]
Public response to Brawley's story was at first mostly sympathetic. Actor Bill Cosby, among others, pledged support and helped raise money for a legal fund. In December 1987, 1,000 people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, marched through the streets of Newburgh, New York, in support of Brawley.[9]
Brawley's claims in the case captured headlines across the country. Public rallies were held denouncing the incident. Racial tension climbed. When civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, with attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, began handling Brawley's publicity, the case quickly took on an explosive edge. At the height of the controversy in June 1988, a poll showed a gap of 34 percentage points between blacks (51%) and whites (85%) on the question of whether she was lying.[10]
Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason generated a national media sensation. The three claimed that officials all the way up to the state government were trying to cover up defendants in the case because they were white. Specifically, they named Steven Pagones, an Assistant District Attorney in Dutchess County, New York, as one of the rapists, and called him a racist, among other accusations.[11]
The mainstream media's coverage drew heated criticism from the African-American press and leaders for its treatment of the teenager.[12][13][14] They cited the leaking and publication of photos taken of her at the hospital and the revelation of her name despite her being underage.[15] In addition, critics were concerned that Brawley had been left in the custody of her mother, stepfather and advisers, rather than being given protection by the state, and that she was used as a pawn by adults who should have protected her:[16]
State law provides that if a child appears to have been sexually molested, then the Child Protective Services Agency is supposed to take jurisdiction and custody of that child. Now, Tawana Brawley was 15 at the time of the incident. If that had been done... early on, the agency would have given her psychiatric attention and preserved evidence of rape, if there was evidence, and Mason and Maddox would have been deprived of their pawn.
Under the authority of New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams, a grand jury was called to hear evidence. On October 6, 1988, the grand jury released its 170-page report concluding Brawley had not been abducted, assaulted, raped and sodomized, as had been claimed by Brawley and her advisers. The report further concluded that the "unsworn public allegations against Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones" were false and had no basis in fact. To issue the report, the grand jury heard from 180 witnesses, saw 250 exhibits and recorded more than 6,000 pages of testimony.[3]
In the decision, the grand jury noted many problems with Brawley's story. Among these were that the rape kit results did not indicate sexual assault. Additionally, despite her claim of having been held captive outdoors for days, Brawley was not suffering from hypothermia, was well-nourished, and appeared to have brushed her teeth recently. Despite her clothing being charred, there were no burns on her body. Although a shoe she was wearing was cut through, Brawley had no injuries to her foot. The racial epithets written on her were upside down, which led to suspicion that Brawley had written the words. Testimony from her schoolmates indicated she had attended a local party during the time of her supposed abduction. One witness claimed to have observed Brawley's climbing into the garbage bag.[17] The feces on her body were identified as coming from her neighbor's dog.[18] Brawley never testified.[19]
Much of the grand jury evidence pointed to a possible motive for Brawley's falsifying the incident: trying to avoid violent punishment from her mother and her stepfather, Ralph King. Witnesses testified that Glenda Brawley had previously beaten her daughter for running away and for spending nights with boys. King had a history of violence that included stabbing his first wife 14 times, later shooting and killing her. There was considerable evidence that King could and would violently attack Brawley: when Brawley had been arrested on a shoplifting charge the previous May, King attempted to beat her for the offense while at the police station. Witnesses also described King as having talked about his stepdaughter in a sexualized manner.[20] On the day of her alleged disappearance, Brawley had skipped school to visit her boyfriend, Todd Buxton, who was serving a six-month jail sentence. When Buxton's mother (with whom she had visited Buxton in jail) urged her to get home before she got in trouble, Brawley told her, "I'm already in trouble." She described how angry King was over a previous incident of her staying out late.[21]
There was evidence that Brawley's mother and King participated knowingly in the hoax. Neighbors told the grand jury that in February they overheard Glenda Brawley saying to King, "You shouldn't have took the money because after it all comes out, they're going to find out the truth." Another neighbor heard Mrs. Brawley say, "They know we're lying and they're going to find out and come and get us."[20]
In April 1989, New York Newsday published claims by a boyfriend of Brawley's, Daryl Rodriguez, that she had told him the story was fabricated, with help from her mother, in order to avert the wrath of her stepfather.[22] Writing about the case in a 2004 book on perceptions of racial violence, sociologist Jonathan Markovitz concluded "it is reasonable to suggest that Brawley's fear and the kinds of suffering that she must have gone through must have been truly staggering if they were enough to force her to resort to cutting her hair, covering herself in feces and crawling into a garbage bag."[5]
The case exposed deep mistrust in the black community about winning justice from legal institutions.[16] Some opinions remained fixed despite the overwhelming evidence. Legal scholar Patricia J. Williams wrote in 1991 that the teenager "has been the victim of some unspeakable crime. No matter how she got there. No matter who did it to herand even if she did it to herself."[23] These comments aroused controversy as well.[24] On May 21, 1990, Alton H. Maddox was indefinitely suspended by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn after failing to appear before a disciplinary hearing to answer allegations regarding his conduct in the Brawley case.[25]
In 1998, Pagones was awarded $345,000 (he sought $395 million) through a lawsuit for defamation of character that he had brought against Sharpton, Maddox and Mason. The jury found Sharpton liable for making seven defamatory statements about Pagones, Maddox for two and Mason for one. The jury deadlocked on four of the 22 statements over which Pagones had sued, and it found eight statements to be non-defamatory.[26] In a later interview, Pagones said the turmoil caused by the accusations of Brawley and her advisers had cost him his first marriage and much personal grief.[27]
Pagones also sued Brawley. She defaulted by not appearing at the trial, and the judge ordered her to pay Pagones damages of $185,000.[28] The $65,000 judgment levied against Al Sharpton was paid for him in 2001 by supporters, including attorney Johnnie Cochran plus former businessman Earl G. Graves, Jr.[29][30] In December 2012, the New York Post reported that Maddox had paid his judgment of $97,000 and Mason was making payments on the $188,000 which he owed. Brawley reportedly had not made any payments.[31] The following month a court ordered her wages garnished to pay Pagones.[32][33]
In a 1997 appearance, Brawley maintained she did not invent the story; she still had supporters.[34] In November 2007, Brawley's stepfather and mother, in a 20th-anniversary feature for the New York Daily News, contended the attack happened. "How could we make this up and take down the state of New York? We're just regular people," Glenda Brawley said." They said they had asked New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Governor Eliot Spitzer to reopen the case. They also said that Brawley, who has converted to Islam, would speak at any legal proceedings.[35] As of 2013, Brawley lives in Virginia, under a new name, where she works as a nurse.[36]
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Tawana Brawley rape allegations - Wikipedia
Huckabee: 'Most Voices Unhappy With Trump' Are 'People Who Just Don't Like Him'
Ted Nugent Blasts Trump Critics: 'All Lives Matter, We Condemn All Violence'
New York activist Al Sharpton offered an emotional and personal case calling for the federal government to halt funding to Washington, D.C.'s Jefferson Memorial.
Sharpton said America's third president and the author of the Declaration of Independence had several slaves.
His iconic round-roofed memorial sits on the edge of Potomac River- the first of several monuments lining Washington's Ohio Drive.
Sharpton also noted how Jefferson is said to have fathered a child with a slave named Sally Hemings.
"People need to understand that people were enslaved," Sharpton told PBS' Charlie Rose.
He said that his great-grandfather was a slave who was owned by an ancestor of former Sen. J. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.).
"Our families were victims of this," he said. "Public monuments [to people like Jefferson] are supported by public funds."
"You're asking me to subsidize the insult to my family," Sharpton said, adding that private museums were preferable to federally-funded monuments to slaveholders.
Sharpton added that President Trump "had laryngitis for two days" on the issue of condemning white supremacist violence in Jefferson's hometown of Charlottesville.
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Al Sharpton: Defund the Jefferson Memorial | Fox News Insider
Q&A By Adelle M. Banks | 22 mins ago
The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks with local African-American clergy members on Aug. 8, 2017, in Woodlawn, Md. Sharpton addressed Baltimore's upswing in violence and urged clergy in attendance to participate in the Thousand Ministers March from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., which will take place Aug. 28. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
(RNS) The Rev. Al Sharpton says his thousand-minister march is all the more urgent now than when he began planning it months ago.
The Pentecostal-turned-Baptist minister says the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va., has sparked more interest and a greater need for clergy of many faiths to speak up at the march set for Aug. 28, the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington.
The march will begin at the Washington memorial honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and end at Justice Department offices to protest increased hate crimes, discrimination and mass incarceration.
The 62-year-old president of the National Action Network, a predominantly black, Christian organization, talked with RNS about his plans. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Charlottesville was a very startling and repulsive reminder to us of the issue of hate and the issue of racism and anti-Semitism that is still alive and practiced in the country. It seems now to have been revived and, in many ways, given moral equivalency with those that protested by the president of the United States. We need a president thats clear that anti-Semitism and hatred and the kind of public display of bigotry that we saw is unacceptable.
We had already called for 1,000 ministers of all faiths Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim to meet at Kings memorial and march to the Justice Department, saying we do not want to see the moral authority of Dr. Kings dream undermined no matter who the president. And weve had several hundred ministers already sign. After Charlottesville happened and then the presidents reaction it has intensified and were getting calls from all kinds of ministers from all faiths saying we must make a statement.
Our hope is that when you looked at those Nazis carrying torches talking aboutYou will not replace us, we can contrast that with rabbis linking arms with Baptist ministers and Muslims marching in the spirit of Dr. King. They went to Robert E. Lees monument. Were going to Kings monument and marching to the Justice Department. I heard growing up that the best way to expose a dirty glass is put a clean glass next to it. Faith leaders must stand up and show a dignified, nonviolent way.
Our security concerns have grown cause we always now have to be concerned about whether some people will try and do a counter thing Im talking about from the right. I get up every day facing death threats. Thats normal when youre high-profile. So our security concerns increase although weve had no direct threats.
As Ive talked to a lot of the ministers that have called and joined in now, a lot of them said that, yes, we always agreed with the idea of a march but I think we didnt understand the urgency until we saw that footage on Saturday night. I think what that has done is brought back, into everyones living room, why we need to keep marching. This is much worse than we thought in terms of a spirit of hate and immorality.
RELATED: We Shall Not Be Moved marchers honor King, fight fear of Trump
This one is for faith leaders. Weve only asked for ministers. Now, others might come but it will be led by and the program will be rabbis, clergy members of the various parts of Christendom, Muslims and Hindus. Because we want to make a statement that hundreds of faith leaders came to Washington on the day of Dr. Kings dream. That is a big difference from us bringing tens of thousands of people we want to make a clear statement from the moral and the faith leaders of this country.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, center, founder of the National Action Network, joins other civil rights leaders at the front of the We Shall Not Be Moved march in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, 2017, ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks
Dont forget Dr. Kings organization was named the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was very specific that it was religious-based and National Action Network is that as well. Weve not heard from the faith community in a very public, united way and thats the difference this march is.
It gives hope that there are people that are willing to stand up. Weve gone through rough periods in our history before and faith leaders leadus through. What do we remember about the 60s? We remember when Rabbi (Abraham Joshua) Heschel joined Dr. King in Selma. We remember how it was a rabbi that was the speaker right before Dr. King at the March on Washington. When we all started coming together and raised the high moral questions, it set the climate for change. And you will always have other things going on, but when people know that those whom they go to on their Sabbath to get guidance are standing up, it brings it to another dimension. And I think it is extremely important that we do this, particularly at this time.
I think that theyve got to get into the community. Theyve got to get into the schools. Theyve got to get into the local gatherings, the town halls, the planning board meetings. And weve got to beat back this spirit of hate. Weve got to go and do the work. Faith without works is a dead thing, the Bible says. And I want to lay that challenge out at the march: Weve got to come off our pulpits and out of our cathedrals and save the soul of this nation.
Adelle M. Banks, production editor and a national reporter, joined RNS in 1995. An award-winning journalist, she previously was the religion reporter at the Orlando Sentinel and a reporter at The Providence Journal and newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Syracuse and Binghamton.
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Rev. Al Sharpton's thousand-minister march gains steam after Charlottesville - Religion News Service
A report in the New York Times that explored whether President Trump harbors racial animus interviewed several of Trump's black friends for the story, all of whom said they never saw signs of racism.
Only Democratic activist and liberal MSNBC host Al Sharpton, who has associated with Trump in the past, said he sees signs of racism in the president.
The story, published Thursday in light of Trump's comments about the violence in Charlottesville, Va., said, "more than ever, the question is being asked: Is Mr. Trump personally racist?"
Among those interviewed was Kara Young, a biracial former girlfriend of Trump's, who said, "That was not my experience" in their relationship. She also said that she "never heard him say a disparaging comment towards any race of people."
Also interviewed in the story was Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for Trump's campaign and for Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the administration. Both Pierson and Carson are black and both disputed the idea of Trump being racist.
Lynne Patton, a black woman in the administration leads the Department of Housing and Urban Development agency's New York and New Jersey office, offered that Trump "doesn't see color the way the average person does."
Trump drew wide criticism this week after he maintained that "both sides" of protesters at a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville bear responsibility for violence that broke out and resulted in the death of one woman.
Among all those interviewed for the Times story, only Sharpton, who was an outspoken supporter of President Barack Obama and has a history of anti-Semitic activism, would suggest that Trump is racist.
"He has made a deliberate choice to not be inclusive and to be racially exclusive," Sharpton told the paper. "He has nobody black, at all, in his inner circle."
The article is similar to one published by the Times in late 2015, a few months into Trump's campaign. That story said his campaign rhetoric had "divide[d] black celebrities he calls friends."
But only two subjects interviewed for that story, entrepreneur Russell Simmons and, again, Sharpton, accused Trump of racial bigotry.
Rev. Jesse Jackson said in the story that Trump has said some "painful and hurtful" things throughout the campaign. But, the story said, "When asked if Mr. Trump was a racist, Mr. Jackson responded, 'I don't want to use that language.'"
Several other celebrities quoted in the story supported Trump, calling him a longtime friend.
Don King, the professional boxing promoter, said, "To me, Donald is Donald. That's not a presidential endorsement, but it is a humanistic endorsement."
The story referred to a recent comment by former boxing champion Mike Tyson, who defended Trump's controversial remarks on Muslims. "Hey listen, anybody that was ever president of the United States offended some group of people," Tyson had said.
Jaqueline M. Williams, a former associate at Trump's company, described the real estate developer's campaign rhetoric as "shocking" but otherwise only recalled a "warm, professional environment" while working for him.
Retired NFL player Herschel Walker also would not criticize Trump.
"I don't think Donald is against Muslims, or blacks, or Hispanics," Walker said in the story. "I do know he is going to try to make this country safe."
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New York Times interviews Trump's black friends to ask if Trump is 'personally racist' - Washington Examiner