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Philadelphias Nancy Glass always thought there was a huge piece missing from the publics understanding ofthe 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial: the jury.

Every single day, we broadcast from the area where all the journalists sort of camped out, the former American Journal anchor recalledlast week. I knew about the jury. Thats the thing that bothered me. I knew that there was more to the story from day one. The public had their own reaction, but I knew that the jury was much more complex than that.

On Saturday, Glass, who these days works behind the cameras as a producer and the CEO of Glass Entertainment Group in Bala Cynwyd (formerly Nancy Glass Productions), gets to help tell the jurors side of that controversial verdict. Herfour-night documentary miniseries for Oxygen, The Jury Speaks, openswith a reexamination of the Simpson case that includes interviews with and a revote by a small group of the cases jurors.

On Sunday, the miniseries continues with jurors from Michael Jacksons 2005 trial on child-molestation charges. Mondays installment deals with the jury that acquitted George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and Tuesdays with the people who in 2003 acquitted Robert Durst (subject of HBOs The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst) in the murder of the neighbor hed admitted dismembering but claimed to have killed in self-defense. A fifth episode, about the 2005 acquittal of actor Robert Blake in his wifes murder, will be available On Demand.

Premiering the week of Simpsons scheduled parole hearing on his sentence for armed robbery and assault with a weapon and coming on the heels of the Bill Cosby mistrial, The Jury Speaksmight seem particularly well-timed, but its just serendipitous, Glass said.

Shenarrates the series, and conducted some of the interviews, something she said she doesnt normally do for her companys productions, which include such series as Animal Planets Tanked,the Travel Channels Dangerous Grounds featuring Philadelphia coffee entrepreneur Todd Carmichael and Investigation Discovery true-crime documentaries such asToo Pretty to Live and A Checklist for Murder.

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Frankly, Im not needed for this kind of thing. We have great staff. We have fabulous producers, she said. This was just something I really cared about.

Oxygen, theNBC Universal-owned cable channelwhose original founders included Oprah Winfrey, has recently shifted its focus to true crime, but the channel wants to do crime in a different way, not only the story of a murder, Glass said.

This was, we thought, a very different way to go about it, and to really look at the true story. I think people want to know about the true story. The truth is so flexible nowadays, that perhaps people want to judge for themselves, and not be told whats what. And this way you can. When you hear how the jury thought about it, you can form your own thoughts. You can understand why they did what they did. Or maybe youll be even madder.

And maybe youll feel sorry for the people summoned to sit in judgment. One takeaway from the two episodes Ive seen, on Simpsons and Jacksons cases, was that jurors in those cases had put up with a lot.

Their sequestration was a nightmare, Glass said of the Simpson jury. (She hadnt seenFXs American Crime Story: The People v. O.J., andits jury-focused episode, A Jury in Jail: I didnt watch any of it, because I covered it too much, she said.)

What most people dont understand is being sequestered means you cant watch TV [without supervision], you cant read a newspaper, you have supervised phone calls, so you really cant talk about much because somebody else is listening. You cant talk to each other about the case. Its really awful. Ten months, they were sequestered, and they didnt all like each other. In the beginning or end, she said.

Getting even asmall group of jurors together from old cases proved challenging.

Some of them have died, some of them are sick, and some just dont want to talk about it anymore or be identified, she said. Because these jurors had been battered, some singled out for humiliation during the trial one woman recalls being known as the fat juror or harassed afterward by people who disagreed with the verdicts.

They had to listen to this and then they are torn apart in the press. And some of them were afraid, Glass said.

It doesnt gain them anything to talk. But here they wanted to talk, because someone wanted to hear their side of the story. Someone wanted them to lay out exactly what happened. And whats interesting is, as a viewer, you might change your mind on a case and you might not. But it certainly gives you a lot more to think about.

The Jury Speaks. 9 p.m. Saturday-Tuesday, Oxygen.

Published: July 18, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: July 18, 2017 3:01 PM EDT

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Nancy Glass revisits OJ case as a producer in 'The Jury Speaks' - Philly.com

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, started a national conversation about race and racism that continues. Part of that conversation includes what we tell children about this. We explore that.

When George Zimmerman was acquitted for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager four years ago, it ignited a national conversation about race and justice. It also sharply divided people. Some viewed the photo of Martin - a young man in a hoodie - and saw a threat. Others - including President Obama - saw someone who could be their son.

For some families of color especially, the incident started a deeply personal conversation that stems from news reports of police-involved shootings of young black men, but also from being black in America.

A filmmaker explored reactions after that verdict in the short documentary "What We Told Our Sons," which is coming to Charlotte this week. The filmmaker, Dayvee Sutton, wanted to use everyday peoples stories to start a conversation about race and racism. Mike Collins talks with her and others about how we talk with kids about race, interactions with police, and what they see in the news.

Guests

Dayvee Sutton - Journalist and filmmaker, she made the short documentary "What We Told Our Sons: Families React to the Trayvon Martin Verdict" that will be screened in Charlotte this week.

Venetia St Vilus - Local parent, she appeared in the film.

Stanley St Vilus - Venetia's son, he also appears in the film (he was 9 years old). He's 13 years old now and goes to Piedmont Middle School.

Hank Harris - Chair & Professor, Department of Counseling at UNC Charlotte.

Event info:

Levine Museum will screen "What We Told Our Sons" and host a discussion with filmmaker Dayvee Sutton on Thursday, July 20, 6:30-9:00pm. Details.

What We Told Our Sons - trailer from Dream Network Media on Vimeo.

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Charlotte Talks: 'What We Told Our Sons' Talking To Kids About Race And Police-Involved Shootings - WFAE

Raoul Peck's recent documentary I Am Not Your Negro served as a timely reminder of the relevance of James Baldwin to contemporary American society, and this show-stopper of a performance makes art of the writer's eventful life. A novelist-essayist who offered uncompromisingly acute observations on race relations as well as the bitter political hypocrisy at the heart of Uncle Sam during the Civil Rights era, Baldwin expounded un-alternative facts that could be uncomfortable for black and white, and faced no end of challenges for his grandstand intelligence as well as the arch threat he posed, by dint of his homosexuality, to fellow activists narrow of mind.

Active since the late 1990s, The Negro Problem is a provocative name, for the Baldwin Negro was a problem on many levels. In any case Stew is a front man with a waspish playfulness that livelys up the Spiegel tent at the popular cross-arts summer festival that is Underbelly. He resists categorisation as much as Baldwin does trivialisation. From the git-go he leads his troops Marty Beller(drums), Art Terry (keys), Dana Lyn(violin), Heidi Rodewald (bass) as Dick Gregory might marshal a sparkly Weimar Republic cabaret. Los Angeles-born and Europe-embedded Stew's asides suit that of a Tony-winning author (for Passing Strange in 2008), but the pleasing arrangements of long-time musical collaborator Rodewald have the kind of taut precision sometimes with basslines stripped to a few chords, sometimes stretched to more expansive harmony that makes for listenable music amid theatrical story-in-song. Time and again echoes of John Cale and The Velvet Underground ring out, perhaps with an itchy scratchy catchy rock'n'roll animalism skewing smartly to Elmore James' territory.

Tales of Baldwin's literary assassination of his former benefactor Richard Wright, the Kan-Jay or Ye-Z of the 1950s whose hook-up of the young pretender was met with an almighty putdown, are gripping because they highlight an era when ideas moving forward mattered more than careers pushing upward. As do the revelations that our hero became a hate figure because of a lifestyle choice not seen as wholesome, uniting both the Black Panthers and Black Nationalists in censure of his less than 'manly' ways. Moving seamlessly into biography-cum-travelogue mode Stew also regales us with snapshot chronicles of Baldwin's sojourns in Istanbul and France.

Sharp as the focus is on Baldwin, it is a song about Trayvon Martin that is arguably the moment that captures so much of the writer's anguish over the state of America, and, more to the point, underlines how the tragic death of a black teenager in 2012 at the hands of a 'brown man with a very German name', George Zimmerman, still resonates with the chilling divides in society that were prevalent in Baldwin's time. If Black Lives Matters hails Martin and many others then Baldwin remains one of the ultimate black lives that still matter precisely because he saw, just as Sly did, the reality of 'everyday people', the ordinary among the extraordinary, the bare fact that there were black Harlemites too busy scrappling for the rentman's apple to know who Charlie Parker was. They had to be rather than bop. Stew & The Negro Problem bring us James Baldwin as a present day flame of truth rather than a nostalgic fire last time.

Kevin Le Gendre Photo by Jen Pearce

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Notes Of A Native Song: Stew & The Negro Problem Probe James Baldwin's Legacy At Southbank's Underbelly Fest - Jazzwise magazine

Associated Press

Thursday, July 13, 2017

AP

British and Irish singers perform on stage at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium, London, England, July 13, 1985. From left are George Michael of Wham!, Bob Geldolf, Bono of U2, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Andrew Ridgley of Wham! and Howard Jones. (AP Photo)

Today is Thursday, July 13, the 194th day of 2017. There are 171 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 13, 1977, a blackout hit New York City in the mid-evening as lightning strikes on electrical equipment caused power to fail; widespread looting broke out. (The electricity was restored about 25 hours later.)

On this date:

In 1787, the Congress of the Confederation adopted the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory, an area corresponding to the eastern half of the present-day Midwest.

In 1793, French revolutionary writer Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who was executed four days later.

In 1863, deadly rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City. (The insurrection was put down three days later.)

In 1939, Frank Sinatra made his first commercial recording, "From the Bottom of My Heart" and "Melancholy Mood," with Harry James and his Orchestra for the Brunswick label.

In 1955, Britain hanged Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old former model convicted of killing her boyfriend, David Blakely (to date, Ellis is the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom).

In 1960, John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination on the first ballot at his party's convention in Los Angeles.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to be U.S. Solicitor General; Marshall became the first black jurist appointed to the post. (Two years later, Johnson nominated Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.)

In 1972, George McGovern received the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Miami Beach.

In 1978, Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II.

In 1985, "Live Aid," an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, took place to raise money for Africa's starving people.

In 1999, Angel Maturino Resendiz, suspected of being the "Railroad Killer," surrendered in El Paso, Texas. (Resendiz was executed in 2006.)

In 2013, a jury in Sanford, Florida, acquitted neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman of all charges in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager; news of the verdict prompted Alicia Garza, an African-American activist in Oakland, California, to declare on Facebook that "black lives matter," a phrase that gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ten years ago: Former media mogul Conrad Black was convicted in Chicago of swindling the Hollinger International newspaper empire out of millions of dollars. (Black was sentenced to 6 years in federal prison, but had his sentence reduced to three years; he was freed in May 2012.) Family prayer services and a huge public outpouring in Austin, Texas, ushered in three days of memorial ceremonies honoring the late Lady Bird Johnson.

Five years ago: His credibility under attack, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney insisted he had "no role whatsoever in the management" of Bain Capital, a private equity firm, after early 1999, and demanded that President Barack Obama apologize for campaign aides who persisted in alleging otherwise. JPMorgan Chase said its traders may have tried to conceal the losses from a soured investment bet that embarrassed the bank and cost it almost $6 billion far more than its chief executive first suggested. Movie producer Richard Zanuck, 77, died in Beverly Hills, California.

One year ago: With emotions running raw, President Barack Obama met privately at the White House with elected officials, law enforcement leaders and members of the Black Lives Matter movement with the goal of getting them to work together to curb violence and build trust. Theresa May entered No. 10 Downing Street as Britain's new prime minister following a bittersweet exit by David Cameron, who resigned after voters rejected his appeal to stay in the European Union.

Today's Birthdays: Game show announcer Johnny Gilbert (TV: "Jeopardy!") is 93. Actor Patrick Stewart is 77. Actor Robert Forster is 76. Actor Harrison Ford is 75. Singer-guitarist Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) is 75. Actor-comedian Cheech Marin is 71. Actress Daphne Maxwell Reid is 69. Actress Didi Conn is 66. Singer Louise Mandrell is 63. Rock musician Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (Twisted Sister) is 61. Actor-director Cameron Crowe is 60. Tennis player Anders Jarryd is 56. Rock musician Gonzalo Martinez De La Cotera (Marcy Playground) is 55. Comedian Tom Kenny is 55. Country singer-songwriter Victoria Shaw is 55. Bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent is 55. Actor Kenny Johnson is 54. Roots singer/songwriter Paul Thorn is 53. Country singer Neil Thrasher is 52. Actor Ken Jeong is 48. Bluegrass musician Mike Barber (The Gibson Brothers) is 47. Singer Deborah Cox is 44. Actress Ashley Scott is 40. Rock musician Will Champion (Coldplay) is 39. Actor Fran Kranz is 36. Actress Aya Cash is 35. Actor Colton Haynes is 29. Actor Steven R. McQueen is 29. Soul singer Leon Bridges is 28. Actor Kyle Harrison Breitkopf is 12.

Thought for Today: "Individuality is freedom lived." John Dos Passos, American author (1896-1970).

Last updated: 8:12 am Thursday, July 13, 2017

2017 GazetteXtra, a division of Bliss Communications, Inc.

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Today in History: July 13 - Janesville Gazette

Can African-Americans be racist? Like other seemingly philosophical questions, the answer varies.

If one subscribes to racism being an institutional structure that African-Americans did not create, they would most likely answer in the negative.

Others have chosen to nuance the question by adding reverse racism into the lexicon. Ive always found this to be a curious term in that it suggests that somehow racism, in the hands of marginalized groups, possesses the ability to swim up-stream.

Racism is often transmuted to as the big brother of prejudice. The two are not the same.

I fully admit my prejudice against beets, snakes and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Everyone has prejudices, which could include certain people. But this is not racism.

Did the election of Barack Obama officially usher America into some post-racial Nirvana? In poll after poll, whites are more likely to accept 21stcentury America as post-racial than African-Americans. I suspect as long was we maintain a sophomoric understanding of racism, such data is unlikely to change.

Racism must be removed from the hackneyed black/white axis. It should not be based on people but rather on policy and procedures.

The federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine has been widely touted as a racist policy that has led to mass incarceration. What has been discussed less is the Congressional Black Caucus at the behest of many African-American leaders in local communities, supported those policies.

The context for that support was not some diabolical plan to rid communities of young black and Latino men, but rather the primordial desire to feel safe. The level of violence, especially in urban areas, during the crack epidemic made the desire for Congress to take action understandable. But it was ultimately a reactionary policy that was blind to the unintended consequences.

Intent notwithstanding, the outcome suggests many within the Congressional Black Caucus and those African-American leaders supported what could be viewed as a racist policy. Glossing over such details seeks a mythical moral high ground that does nothing to move the conversation forward.

After the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, in Shelby County v. Holder, many states previously under its provision went to work to make voting more onerous. This had a pernicious impact on low-income and the elderly, as well as some people of color.

Led by state governments dominated by Republicans, the motivation may well have been to suppress the vote of those unlikely to support their candidates. But the legitimacy of the policies was marred by its dishonest justification.

The case for widespread voter fraud has yet to be proven. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, voter fraud in the 2016 election was between 0.0003 and 0.0025 percent. These findings hardly justify systematically disenfranchising untold numbers of registered voters.

In 2016, the 4thCircuit panel ruled against North Carolinas newly instituted voter laws stating: The new provisions target African-Americans with almost surgical precision and impose cures for problems that did not exist.

Some hold to the theory that blacks cannot be racist because they would first need to subjugate whites. But that oversimplifies the institution of racism that operates in an amoral paradigm. For this to be true, wouldnt it also negate any African-Americans from participating in the institution?

How does one account for the two black officers who plead guilty in shooting deaths of black civilians during Hurricane Katrina?

Neither George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, nor Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who killed Philando Castile, were white. But in my view both were guilty of racist acts.

Anyone participating in institutions of power can be susceptible to the nefarious clutches of racism. Yanez power lay in his being an officer; Zimmerman was bolstered by Floridas Stand Your Ground law.

We must find a better way to talk about racism.What we have now is too simplistic. Its only contribution is to assure arrested development.

Byron Williams is a contributing columnist. Contact him at 510-208-6417 or byron@byronspeaks.com.

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Williams: Need better understanding for conversation of racism - East Bay Times