Blog | Mary C. Curtis

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A series of recent shootings have plagued the streets of Charlotte and even brought on loads of national attention. So what’s next? Mary C. Curtis explains how the community can come together in times like these.

Sep182013

After Jonathan Ferrell shooting, a plea for ‘the benefit of the doubt’ for young black men

CHARLOTTE – Sadness in the faces of the crowd of about 50 gathered Monday at the government center here did not mask the frustration and anger. “No justice, no peace” — the chant was familiar — as speaker after speaker at a news conference asked for answers and demanded change.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are piecing together what happened last Saturday. Around 2 a.m., a 24-year-old man was apparently looking for help after a car crash, a woman called police when she didn’t recognize the man knocking on her door, and one of three responding officers hit the man with 10 shots (of 12 fired) after a Taser either didn’t work or didn’t stop the man fitting the description of the caller. Was the man running? Did the officers identify themselves? Why did only one officer fire? The details are still being investigated.

What is known is this. Jonathan Ferrell, a former Florida A&M football player who had moved to Charlotte, worked two jobs and looked forward to marrying his fiancée and returning to school, is dead. Officer Randall Kerrick, 27, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter. Georgia Ferrell has become a grieving mother holding her son’s childhood Winnie the Pooh doll. She said she forgives the man who shot her son, but cannot understand how and why it happened.

Read the rest attheGrio.com

Sep172013 TAGS: Charlotte, police shooting, race, She the People

Has the National Action Network surpassed the NAACP in influence?

Featured at theGrio.com

As Ben Jealous prepares to step down from his leadership post at the end of this year, there is no question that he brought stability and visibility in his five years as the president and CEO of the NAACP.

Now, as members and observers give Jealous a proper celebratory sendoff, they are also looking to the future of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. How is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909, tackling 21^st-century challenges and what is its relationship with other civil rights organizations?

Sep162013 TAGS: Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, NAACP, National Action Network

Second acts for Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus

Author Paula Broadwell and retired Gen. David Petraeus are in the news again – for different reasons and with very different reactions.

Broadwell, a guest speaker Tuesday at one of the best-attended Rotary Club of Charlotte meetings ever, is settling back into her life with her doctor husband and two young sons. The club’s report on her appearance featured the topic of her speech, military veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no mention of the frenzy that last November accompanied news of her affair with then-CIA director Petraeus.

Sep122013 TAGS: Charlotte, David Petraeus, Duke University, Paula Broadwell, She the People

Picking Charlotte’s Next Mayor

Charlotte, N.C.- We are one step closer to seeing who will be the next Mayor of Charlotte. Mary C. Curtis joined the Rising crew with more on how this race could impact the Queen City.

Sep112013 TAGS: Charlotte, mayor

Italy’s immigration debate turns racist, sexist and personal

Cecile Kyenge is a strong woman. She has to be. As Italy’s first black cabinet minister, she has had to endure a string of repeated racist, sexist and sexually violent insults, and she has answered them with a calm that has only made her critics bolder.

In the latest incident Wednesday, Italy’s far-right Forza Nuova party left three mannequins covered in fake blood at the front door of an administrative office in Rome. “Immigration is the genocide of peoples. Kyenge resign!” read fliers with the Forza Nuova symbol, scattered around the mannequins, according to a Reuters report. Forza Nuova posted pictures of the mannequins on Facebook, with comments explaining the gruesome stunt as a protest against Kyenge’s campaign to make it easier for immigrants to acquire Italian citizenship, the story said. It wasn’t the first time the party used the tactic.

Kyenge, 49, an eye doctor and Italian citizen married to an Italian, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she moved to Italy when she was a teen to continue her studies. After being elected to office, she was named minister of integration by Prime Minister Enrico Letta this year. Kyenge, who can relate to the experience of those moving to Italy for opportunity, has favored legislation that would allow children born in Italy to immigrant parents to get automatic citizenship. That’s a change in a country where nationality is judged more on blood than birth.

Sep062013 TAGS: Cecile Kyenge, Italy, race, She the People

Changes in Charlotte Since the DNC

Charlotte, N.C.- A year has passed but the impact from the Democratic National Convention lives on in the Queen City. Mary C. Curtis was among the movers and shakers during the DNC. She joined Rising to talk about how the city continues to blossom.

Sep042013 TAGS: Charlotte, DNC 2012, Keeping It Positive

Past is present as North Carolina honors 1963 march and battles voting laws

CHARLOTTE — In North Carolina, commemorations of the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s dream credited past struggles while a current battle over voting laws took center stage.

In an uptown Charlotte park Wednesday, the crowd used the examples of civil rights pioneers in a continuation of the Moral Monday protests against conservative laws from the Republican-controlled state legislature. Similar gatherings were planned in each of the state’s 13 congressional districts. While many issues, including education and health care spending, were reflected in comments and emblazoned on signs, the new state voter-ID bill was a unifying cause.

Later Wednesday evening, several Democratic and Republican legislators took questions from their Mecklenburg County constituents in a raucous forum called, ironically as it turned out, “Solving It Together.” At the top of the list in hundreds of questions submitted beforehand – voter-ID laws.

Aug292013 TAGS: Democrats, Kay Hagan. Charlotte, Moral Monday, North Carolina, Republicans, She the People, voter ID

Celebrating Civil Rights Progress in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, the Civil Rights Movement continues to resonate in Charlotte. Contributions of local legends like Franklin McCain, one of the original Greensboro Four who sat at Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1960, are still being celebrated along with King. Mary C. Curtis talks about how this history remains rich throughout the years and what it means for Charlotte today.