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By Naeisha Rose

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Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) and Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D-Cambria Heights) will be among the many mourners expected at the funeral Saturday for four of the five victims who died April 23 in a fast-moving house fire in Queens Village.

Managing the funeral is family member Sheener Bailey-Briggs.

Everything happens for a reason, but I dont know about this one, Bailey-Briggs said.

A three-alarm fire took the lives of four family members and a friend on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Queens Village when the frame house at 112-16 208th St. burst into flames. No calls were made from the house and the Fire Department was alerted by a passing motorists six minutes after the fire first broke out. The cause of the blaze was still under investigation.

Bailey-Briggs chose to have the funeral service at New Greater Bethel Ministries at 215-32 Jamaica Ave. in Queens Village not just to accommodate many family members, but because it was a place close to her heart, like her nephews and cousins who perished in the blaze.

Bailey-Briggs was related to all four victims who will be remembered Saturday: Jada Foxworth, 20; Destiny Dones, 16; Rashawn Matthews, 10 and Chayce Lipford, 2. Sisters Jada and Destiny were her first cousins, once removed. Rashaw was her great nephew and Chayce her great-grandnephew.

Bethel Ministries has served the extended family in difficult times before.

I joined over 20 years ago, Bailey-Briggs said. When my mom died, and my cousin died in a motorcycle accident, I used this church.

Planning this funeral has been the toughest thing she has ever done in her life, she said. For the past 12 days she has barely been sleeping or eating.

I dont believe that it is true, Bailey-Briggs said. Everyday I drive past just to see if its true. I dont let my sister (Gwen) know. I drive pass the house. What a nightmare. Just pray for us to get through this.

As she reads through the obituaries for her four relatives, she recalls her fondest memories of them.

Chayce, his smile. That baby was too cute. Destiny, from the time that she was a baby, that girl walked with joy. If you think that God takes the best, he really did. That kid right there all four of them where joyful. They were rays of sunshine. Im not kidding.

Despite the tragedy that has befallen her family, Bailey-Briggs is working diligently to put on a funeral that befits the family.

This is going to be a beautiful funeral. It is going to be excellent. Just pray for us. Its a lot.

The wake will be from 9 a.m. to 11.am. followed by the funeral from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A repast will be held at 4 p.m.

The four young people will be buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale in L.I.

The fifth victim, Melody Edwards, 17, was laid to rest Wednesday at Mount Moriah AME Church in Cambria Heights.

Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 2604573.

Posted 12:00 am, May 4, 2017

2017 Community News Group

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Al Sharpton to attend burial for Queens Village fire victims - TimesLedger

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Tom Perez Teams Up With Al Sharpton to Lambaste Trump's First ... Observer The Rev. Al Sharpton, right, with DNC Chair Tom Perez, center, and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Will Bredderman/Observer. Democratic National ... and more »

The rest is here:
Tom Perez Teams Up With Al Sharpton to Lambaste Trump's First ... - Observer

Al Sharpton asked White House aide Omarosa Manigault on Thursday to deliver a message to President Trump on behalf of blacks and women concerned with the disaster he created during his first three months in office.

Ms. Manigault spoke at the National Action Network summit organized by Mr. Sharpton in New York City this week when the civil rights leader asked her to relay a message to the president.

You are in a very precarious position, because you represent an administration that many of us disagree with, Mr. Sharpton said to the White House aide and former reality show contestant, Politico reported.

But I would not be loyal to what I am if I did not address those issues and ask you to go back and tell them, Yes, they were respectful. No, they would not allow me to be silenced, but they told me to tell you that we as blacks and women are, in the first 100 days, seeing a disaster in Washington, D.C., he added.

Mr. Sharpton raised his concerns during Thursdays event after Ms. Manigault generated groans from the audience while giving her closing marks, according to multiplereports.

I am looking forward to continue to partner with you, continuing to work on behalf of the National Action Network of Los Angeles, but, more importantly, the president of the United States, Ms. Manigault told an reportedly unenthused audience.

Weve had Bill OReilly here, weve had Sean Hannity here. We respect you. But I wish the President would respect us, Mr. Sharpton said on stage afterwards, according to Politico.

Ms. Manigault, 43, gained fame over a decade ago as a contestant on The Apprentice, Mr. Trumps NBC reality show. She previously worked in the office of Vice President Al Gore in the 1990s and was a member of the Democratic Party before switching to Republican in 2015.

Shes currently an aide to the president as well as the communications director for the White House Office of Public Liaison.

Read the original here:
Al Sharpton raises concerns over Trump's 'disaster' of an ... - Washington Times

Applause greeted President Donald Trump aide Omarosa Manigault when she approached the podium at Rev. Al Sharptons National Action Network convention this afternoonbut the civil rights leader and political commentator Angela Rye offered a harsh reproach to her and her boss aftershe resumed her seat.

Manigault, formerly a contestantonThe Apprentice, was one of Trumps foremost African-American supporters during last years campaign and today works as director of communications for the White House Office of the Public Liaison. She was one of several prominent black women to speak during the Power Luncheon portion of the second day of Sharptons annual summit at the Times Square Sheraton.

The Trump attache, a member of NANs Los Angeles branch, took boos when she mentioned the administrations first 100 daysbut assured the audience she had been working to direct the presidents attention to issues impacting black communities.

I am so happy to be back where I consider back home,' Manigault said. As I fight for you from the White House, I need you to fight from the outside. We cant do it by ourselves.

In particular, she highlighted the presidents decision to move the executive branchs program of oversight and assistance to struggling historically black colleges from the Department of Education to the White House, the Department of Justices emphasis onviolence in the inner-city and the Environmental Protection Agencys $100 million water infrastructure grant tolead-poisoned Flint, Michigan. The last, however, was in fact approved under former President Barack Obama.

But Sharpton issued a stern rebuke to Manigault from the lectern moments later, asserting the president had failed to show respect for the black community.

I listened to sister Omarosa. And Omarosa said she knew where she came from. And I know where you going back to, he said, eliciting gasps from the crowd.You are in a very precarious position. Because you represent an administration that many of us here disagree with.

We as blacks and women are seeing a disaster in the first 100 days of the administration, he continued, jokingly telling the White House aide to exhale.

Sharptons remarks were mild comparedto those of Rye. The high-power advocate and a liberal pundit excoriated Manigault, who had exited the room, when she stood up to receive an award from NAN for her work.

She noted that many HBCU students receive federal Pell grants, which Trump has proposed cutting. She also slammed the presidents taxation and domestic spending priorities, which she asserted disproportionately would harm communities of color.

Im going to bring the fire right now. Moments ago, we were joined by your presidents apprentice, she said. The truth is, when you tell somebody youre going to fight for them, Im going to tell you how not to fight for them. You dont fight for them by putting forth a tax reform plan that cuts corporate tax rates but ignores the poor. You dont fight for them by cutting taxes for the rich, and ensuring that burden is going to be on the backs of the poor and ordinary black and brown people.

Rye also recalled Trumps 1989 demand that the five falsely accused black and Latino youths in the Central Park jogger case receive the death penalty, which he has never recanted. She also remembered that Trump and his father were the subject of repeated civil rights lawsuits that alleged they discriminated against black tenants, which were ultimately settled out of court.

Rye highlighted that Trump had also propagated the false claim that Obama was not an American-born citizen and thus ineligible for the office of the presidency, a claim the president retracted late in last years campaign.

How you dont fight for us is by pissing on me and telling me its raining! Thats not how you fight for me, she said to a standing ovation.

Rye dedicated her award to black activists Angela Davis Assata Shakurthe latter of whom has take refuge in Cuba to avoid charges that she killed a police officer, which she deniesand to California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, among others.

Continued here:
Scathing Words Over Omarosa Manigault's Appearance at Al Sharpton's Convention - Observer

On January 19, the eve of the presidential inauguration, the Rev. Al Sharpton stood outside Trump International Hotel in New York City with Mayor Bill De Blasio, filmmaker Michael Moore, actor Alec Baldwin and thousands of protesters to kick off their 100 days of resistance to the president-elects agenda. We are sending you a message from your hometown. You can try to turn back the clock, but you wont turn back time, Sharpton said to the cheering crowd. We are not going backwards.

Since then, Sharpton has led protesters in Washington, D.C., has spoken out on Twitter and has personally expressed his concerns about voting rights, federal investigations into the deaths of Eric Garner and Walter Scott and the auditing of police departments to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. This April, Sharpton said the movement will begin gearing up for a spring offensive to maintain the movements momentum going into the midterm elections. The opponents, the adversaries of what we believe in and stand for are counting on us becoming distracted, or becoming one that just give up or gives out, Sharpton explained. I think that the only way movements succeed is if there is a sustained indignation.

The controversial and sometimes polarizing Sharpton has grabbed his share of the headlines during his lifetime. He was often an advisor to President Barack Obama, and now he brings a New York-savvy read on the 45th president. He has known Trump for 30 years and has called the president a salesman, a promoter, a P.T. Barnum guy whose currency has always been hyperbole and overstatement. This was evident during Trumps campaign when he said that black communities were absolutely in the worst shape theyve ever been in before, a claim Politifact rated pants on fire. Despite Trumps claim that he has a great relationship with the Blacks, Sharpton said that hes never seen him in any of New Yorks Citys minority neighborhoods. Ive never seen him in Harlem, or Bed-Stuy, Sharpton said. Not one time. I cant think of one event that Ive seen him.

Though its still early in Trumps presidency, Sharpton said hes already been discouraged by Trumps actions towards minority communities. On Feb. 28, one day after the fifth anniversary of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Sessions indicated that his office would no longer conduct audits of troubled police departments. Heres him saying that hes going toin effectreverse whatever advancement weve made there, Sharpton said. And [he] has no fear that anyones going to say anything about it.

Sharpton noted that the decision was made at a time when a police officer is under indictment for the death of Walter Scott, when there has been no conclusion to the federal investigation into the death of Eric Garner and after the City of Baltimore and the Department of Justice agreed on a consent decree after the death of Freddie Gray.

And you want to stop all of this? said Sharpton, incredulous. And its almost like, no news. No ones upset about it. No ones talking about it. Its very terrifying.

Sharpton said the timing showed the administration is either tone deaf, or they want to send a signal that they want people to understand that that day is over. I dont know which it is, Sharpton admitted.

The decision to stop auditing police departments wasnt the only incident that Sharpton said bothered him. In late January, Trump marked the beginning of Black History Month by holding a listening session with about a dozen African Americans who were mostly campaign supporters, according to the Guardian. At the time, Sharpton said the event was tantamount to an insult and that past presidents did a lot more to celebrate black culture. A short time later, Trump came under criticism when he said that Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody whos done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more. Many, including Sharpton, thought it sounded as though Trump believed Douglass was still alive.

Its a very dire situation, Sharpton said, You couldnt make it up, let me put it that way.

Though the situation may be dire, Sharpton confirmed that Trumps administration has reached out to him and other civil rights leaders. In February, Sharpton said he got a phone call from Sessions asking if they could meet and discuss issues over coffee. Similar overtures were made to Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, and Cornell Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP.

What was Sharptons response to Sessions? I said, I dont want a cup of coffee. You can meet with all of us and we can deal with these issues as we have any other attorney general, he responded. His office has said that they were going to set it up; were waiting to see. But it was supposed to have happened by now. Sharpton said that if the meeting does happen, he wont go alone: Ill only meet with him or Trump if theres other civil rights leaders [there].

In the meantime, Sharpton said hes worried Trumps agenda will reverse, and in many ways realign, where our country is going in terms of social justice, health care [and] voting rights. The black community is particularly vulnerable, Sharpton said, with much to lose from the new administration. They have the right to vote to lose. They have the right to public education being a priority in this country, which educates the overwhelming majority of our young people, Sharpton said. They have the right of police accountability to losethe right of police being prosecuted if they break the law, they have that to lose. They have their health care, which disproportionately helped us, to lose, and they have our economic standing to lose.

Sharpton continued: Black unemployment was cut in half under Barack Obama. Were hearing about a trillion dollars in infrastructure, none of which is said to be going in our communities. If he does bridges and tunnels that are not in inner cities, thats not jobs for us. That dont impact us. We have a lot to lose.

He also said hed like to see the media do a better job focusing on the issues like repealing Obamacare, like new tax codes, instead of chasing the distractions that Trump keeps feeding them. I think he throws so much at us, he concluded.

So far, Sharpton believes Trumps strategy has worked. I think the media has become completely predictable and gullible to whatever he does, he sighed. In the interim, immigrants living under terror, people are afraid theyre going to lose their health careall of that is pushed [to the side] and marginalized. Courtesy of Street Roots / INSP.ngo

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Rev. Al Sharpton: We Are Not Going Backwards - Spare Change News