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Mary Valencia Wilson, 1944-2011

Meetings (Feb-Mar-April 2012 location change)

MLK Highway Caravan

Rev. Onie Cooper, 1925-2011

From February through April, 2011, the Reno-Sparks NAACP will meet at the Wells Fargo Banking Education Center, 2145 Sutro Street, Suite 10 in Reno (at the northwest corner of Sutro and Oddie Blvd.). The executive committee convenes at 6:00 p.m., general membership at 7:00 p.m. Meetings are always held on the first Thursday of each month, excluding holidays.

     “…if 53% was the dropout for white males, it would be unacceptable; if 41% of their children were being placed in special education, that would be a major crisis,” says noted author and educational consultant Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu.
     “If only 20% of their boys were proficient in reading in eighth grade, that would be a crisis. If only 2.5% of white males ever earned a college degree, that would be a major crisis in America.”

SWORN TO SERVE — Elder William Moon, at right in white with back to camera, swears in 2011-2012 officers at the branch meeting of January 6, 2011. (Chip Evans photo)

GOOD FRIENDS AND FELLOW WARRIORS —(Left to right) Mary Cooper, Rev. Onie Cooper, Elder William Moon, Jane Moon. (At installation of officers, December, 2008)

RENO, Nev. — Rev. Onie Cooper, former branch president, is out of intensive care but has not been well enough to move to a residential care facility. He remains in the Tahoe Pavilion at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno. Elder William Moon, also a former Reno-Sparks NAACP president, is heading up a support drive for the Cooper family. He encourages people to send contributions payable to Mrs. Mary Cooper, to P.O. Box 7757, Reno, NV 89510. The branch is also accepting contributions through its website. Online contributors are asked to please designate contributions for Rev. Cooper as prompted by the submission instructions.

A member of the branch's youth council was seriously injured in an auto accident earlier this week. Longtime member Alberta Rederford continues on her path to a full recovery from a stroke.

Send good energy and stay tuned.

Keeping the faith: MLK Caravan participation improves, two branch stalwarts now hospitalized

MONDAY 1-17-2011 — More than 40 vehicles participated in today's 13th Martin Luther King, Jr., Highway Caravan, including a three-wheeler motorcycle with Industrial Workers of the World Union man Paul Lenart and young Kora Bridgeford aboard (above). Veteran journalist Ed Pearce of KOLO TV-8 News (ABC) aired an excellent 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. historical tribute to Rev. Onie Cooper, who remains hospitalized but is apparently just a bit better, as his wife, Mary, felt confident enough to leave his side to participate in today's event. At a brief gathering at the Second Baptist Church before the caravan departed, she thanked everyone for their participation and introduced a half-dozen Cooper family members.

Click here for Ed Pearce's story, both text and video but hurry — most TV stations only archive for a few days.

Union member Rita Weisshaar brought banners donated by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245/AFL-CIO (see below), ensuring that the caravan carried increased visual impact. The number of participants showed gains over recent years and traffic on the US 395/Interstate 580 MLK route was uncharacteristically heavy for a holiday. Perhaps it was a reflection of Reno's gorgeous "false spring" weather, where the first forsythia has aleady bloomed.

Other unions represented included American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 4041/AFL-CIO (Branch President Lonnie Feemster, ret.), Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO (Branch First VP Andrew Barbano), International Assn. of Firefighters Local 731/AFL-CIO (former Branch President Kenny Dalton), Railroad Workers United and (Wobbly Ron Kaminkow), Nevada State Education Assn. (Peggy Lear Bowen,ret.), and Las Vegas IBEW Local 357 in the person of 28-year former Assemblyman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas. He was accompanied by his wife, Nancy, a former regent of the Nevada System of Higher Education who ran statewide for Congress last year. They now reside in Sparks.

Clergy included Rev. William C. Webb, retired pastor of Second Baptist and newly sworn branch executive committtee member. He led a brief prayer before the caravan departed. Also in attendance were "refired" (his term) Methodist Rev. John Emerson, International Community of Christ Bishop Gene Savoy, Jr., who succeeded Rev. Cooper as chair of the Northern Nevada Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Committee, and Rev. Vince Shelton, pastor of Sparks Freedom Baptist Church and former longtime pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist, also in the Rail City.

Other media included Erin Breen (KTVN TV-2/CBS), Dennis Myers (Reno News & Review), Dan McGee (Daily Sparks Tribune), photographer Tim Dunn (Reno Gazette-Journal) and Demetrice Dalton (OurStoryInc.org).

Apologies to all whose names are not included above, please write and enlighten us for the enlargement of the perpetual cyber-record. Thanks to everyone who made this year's event successful and paved the way for an ambitious future agenda. Rev. Cooper will be quite pleased.

More from the hospital beat — Branch President Lonnie Feemster informed attendees today that longtime NAACP stalwart Alberta Rederford has suffered a stroke and lies hospitalized in Northern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks. Your best wishes and prayers are encouraged.

MLK’s dream rides on
Daily Sparks Tribune / 1-18-2011

Cooper continues to lead from hospital bed
Daily Sparks Tribune / 1-17-2011

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Lonnie Feemster (775) 425-1850
Andrew Barbano (775) 786-1455

100 CARS ON MLK DAY: Martin Luther King Highway advocate in Renown ICU

RENO, NEVADA (1-13-2011) —From his hospital bed, Rev. Onie Cooper continues to advocate for civil rights in the name of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cooper, a former president of NAACP Reno-Sparks Branch 1112, has been in poor health and recently stepped down as chair of the local MLK committee, a position now filled by Bishop Gene Savoy, Jr.

Cooper is seriously ill and currently in the intensive care unit at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno.

"My husband's dream is to have 100 cars participate in the annual Martin Luther King Highway caravan," stated his wife, Mary.

As a result of Rev. Cooper's years-long campaign, a segment of US 395/Intersate-580 was designated the Martin Luther King Highway. The annual caravan will gather at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 17, at the Second Baptist Church, 1265 Montello Street in Reno. As always, participants will drive a portion of the MLK Highway through Reno.

The caravan will be easier to see this year due to the donation of banners from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245/AFL-CIO.

Elder William Moon, also a former Reno-Sparks NAACP president, is heading up a support drive for the Cooper family. He encourages people to send contributions payable to Mrs. Mary Cooper, to P.O. Box 7757, Reno, NV 89510.

The branch is also accepting contributions through its website.Online contributors are asked to please designate contributions for Rev. Cooper as prompted by the submission instructions.

MLK weekend activities begin with the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Interfaith Memorial Service at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 16, at the First United Methodist Church, 209 W. First at West streets, across from the riverfront plaza in downtown Reno.

The service is a joint function of the Northern Nevada Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Committee and the Nevada Clergy Association. For more information, call (775) 786-1800. Bishop Gene Savoy, Jr., who chairs the committee, will officiate. First United Methodist Pastor Emeritus Rev. John Emerson will deliver the keynote address. There will be choral music and proclamations from government leaders. [Update: Coverage of the service from OneIndiaNews]

The weekend concludes with the 23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dinner Celebration on Monday, Jan. 17, hosted by the Northern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness Society (NNBCAS). This year's theme is "Dare to Inspire." The featured speaker will be Dr. Andrew Harewood, a U.S. Army major assigned to the Pentagon as deputy Pentagon Chaplin. He is the recipient of citations from the White House and numerous military awards.

The dinner will take place in the Tuscany Ballroom at the Peppermill Hotel Casino, 2707 S. Virginia St. in Reno. A cocktail reception begins at 6 p.m. followed by the dinner and program at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $55 per person. More information may be obtained by calling NNBCAS at (775) 329-8990.

KIND WISHES FROM OLD FRIENDS

RENO, NV (4-13-2011) — I knew Onie for  20+ years. I will miss lunches at the Chinese buffet or Red Lobster and our discussions on everything.  We were usually on totally different sides . I am a white, female, conservative and 4th generation Nevadan …he obviously had a totally different life experience. We both served in the military so we did have that in common.

He was one of the few people with whom I could discuss race, religion and politics …  It was always a REAL discussion without a fight or argument despite  mostly opposing  views.

I will miss him!

Cindy Sullivan

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RENO, NV (4-13-2011) — "I'll never forget the sound of Rev. Onie Cooper's voice, with that deep southern accent rooted in his Louisiana upbringing. He used that voice tirelessly in demanding greater justice for people of color and the poor. I was blessed to hear Rev. Cooper speak out on many occasions over the past couple decades. Rev. Cooper was a hard working leader in fighting against racial injustice in our town. From efforts to establish a police review board, to solidarity actions with the Jena Six (where I snapped this picture of him), Onie's passion was contagious. May his 86 years of life give all of us more courage and inspiration to carry on the fight. "

Bob Fulkerson
State Director
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada

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NAPLES, Florida (1-15-2011) — "Onie is one of those few clear, lonely, loud, unwavering trumpets without whom there often would be no sound of active resistance at all, only the silence of passive acceptance. As one who has come and gone from Reno recently, I can testify: When you ask where the action for justice is, people point you to Onie. It was true when we got there, true when we left. Onie’s is an imperishable light, shining on in our lives and works long after the source has gone out. Just one of those miracles we are given once in a long while to accompany. Please give our love to all and our special thanks to Mary." — Rev. John and Julie Auer Rev. Auer is the retired former pastor at Reno's First United Methodist Church.

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LAS VEGAS (1-13-2011) — It is with great pride and respect, that I can truly say that part of my most cherished time living in Nevada, was the many years that I have known and worked with Rev. Onie Cooper. The first time when we were appointed by then-Gov. Richard Bryan to Nevada's first statewide Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Commission in 1984.

In 1987 I was honored and proud to stand with him in the Governor's office as he signed into law, Nevada's state paid holiday honoring Dr. King.

Come on Reno, he deserves far more than 100 cars, so "crank um up for Onie!"

I pray and wish him a speedy recovery.

All MLK supporters, check out the Las Vegas events at KingWeekLasVegas.com.

Wendell P. Williams, Founder
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Committee of Las Vegas

Mr. Williams, D-Las Vegas, is a former longtime member of the Nevada State Assembly.

 

NAACP Education Workshop

The Reno Sparks NAACP invites you to attend an informative and strategic planning session focused on increasing success rate of students in our community.

Please bring any friends or students to ask questions or find out how we can work together to support student achievement.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
Washoe County School District Administration Building Board Room
425 East Ninth Street Reno

WCSD board trustees are interested in having a conversation with the NAACP Executive Committee, membership and interested community members on such issues as:

WCSD Strategic Plan and reform agenda
Upcoming legislative session in Carson City
Getting every child to graduation and/or highly-skilled career ready

Trustees will be joined by Irene Payne, Director of Communications for WCSD.  This is an informal opportunity to have a discussion with our community partners.

For more information contact:
Terry Bartek, Administrative Assistant
Communications Department
Washoe County School District
425 East Ninth Street
Reno, Nevada  89520
Office: 775-348-0371, Cell: 775-219-1545, Fax: 775-348-0397

 

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-29-2011: On this date in 1802, John Beckley was appointed the first librarian of Congress; in 1834, setting an ominous precedent later used by other presidents, President Jackson used federal troops to break labor unrest by workers on the C&O Canal construction who were protesting low pay and dangerous conditions; in 1961 in a sermon in New York City, Methodist minister Ralph Sockman said people should not test God to meet conditions they create: "God's ways are above our own ways as the heavens are above the earth." [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-28-2011: On this date in 1898, Hugh O'Flaherty, an Irish Catholic priest who organized an operation that rescued and secreted at least 3,925 Allied prisoners and Jews in Nazi-occupied Rome, was born in Cahersiveen, Ireland (O'Flaherty received the Order of the British Empire and the U.S. Medal of Freedom, but in his native Ireland is remembered only with a grove of trees in Killarney National Park; in 1986, former Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme, a hero to U.S. troops and peace activists for opposing the Vietnam war and providing a refuge in Sweden for war objectors and for his criticism of Soviet suppression of the Czech uprising, was assassinated in Stockholm. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com, including a poem to Fr. O'Flaherty.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-27-2011: On this date in 1781, after more than 200 colonials whose enlistments had ended prepared to leave for home and George Washington forced them back into military service, he then compelled several members of the group to serve as a firing squad and kill their leaders ("This was a most painful task, and when ordered to load, some of them shed tears," reported a unit physician); in 1945 at Auschwitz Birkenau, the Soviet Army liberated the remaining 7,000 survivors of the death camp; in 1953 at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, Ralph Ellison received the National Book Award for Invisible Man, which he called his "not quite fully achieved attempt at a major novel"; in 1967, astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee died in the Apollo 1 module in a launch pad fire; in 1998, President Clinton appointed assistant Clark County district attorney Johnnie Rawlinson to be a U.S. District Court judge. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Ms. Rawlinson is an African American.) [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-26-2011: On this date in in 1654, Portugal ordered Jewish and Dutch settlers in Brazil (some of whom had already been forced to leave Portugal) to leave the country within three months, and some of them ended up in New Amsterdam (New York); in 1784, Benjamin Franklin opposed the selection of the eagle as the U.S. national bird because it is a scavenger and instead championed the turkey; in 1962, Bishop Joseph A. Burke of the New York Catholic Diocese of Buffalo declared the Twist (a dance in which the boy and girl never touch) to be impure and banned it from Catholic schools in the diocese; in 1967, Governor Paul Laxalt said he had dropped prison inmates as staff members at the governor's mansion: "We decided we would feel more comfortable with our own trusted help."; in 1988, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (EDITOR'S NOTE: He is now better known as Pope Benedict XV) of Germany, prefect of the Inquisition, visited New York under the sponsorship of the conservative Rutherford Institute and was snubbed by rabbis because of his contention that "the faith of Abraham finds its fulfillment" in "the reality of Jesus Christ" and picketed by gays because of his anti-gay comments; in 2005, Christopher Lee Weaver of Las Vegas died in Iraq near the Syrian border. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com, including Ben Franklin on turkeys vs. eagles.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-25-2011: On this date in 1787, former revolutionary war officer Daniel Shays led a group of debtors to stop the Massachusetts Supreme Court from meeting and confiscating land and property, attacking both the courthouse and federal arsenal, an uprising that the state militia succeeded in putting down, though the next state legislature granted some of the insurgents‚ demands and pardoned or arranged light sentences for the leaders. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-24-2011: On this date in 1879, the Nevada State Journal reported: "Secretary Evarts [U.S. Secretary of State William Evarts] having declared the influx of Chinese to this coast is 'an invasion, not an immigration', it becomes the duty of every good citizen to expel the invaders."; in 1920, the Churchill County Commercial Club adopted a resolution asking Governor Emmet Boyle to call a special session of the Nevada Legislature to pass a law protecting Nevada from the "evils of continued Japanese immigration"; in 1965, Mrs. Spencer Tracy, director of a clinic in Los Angeles, wrote to the Las Vegas Review Journal to object to the newspaper's use of the term "deaf mute"; in 1984, Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh; in 1996, ground was broken for the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek/The Experience; in 2009, Benedict XVI, in another effort to reach out to the Catholic far right, reinstated four excommunicated bishops, including a Holocaust denier.

Franklin Roosevelt memorandum to Cordell Hull/January 24, 1944: I saw Halifax [British ambassador to the United States Edward Wood, Lord Halifax] last week and told him quite frankly that it was perfectly true that I had, for over a year, expressed the opinion that Indo-China should not go back to France but that it should be administered by an international trusteeship. France has had the country — thirty million inhabitants for nearly one hundred years, and the people are worse off than they were at the beginning.

As a matter of interest, I am wholeheartedly supported in this view by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek [of China] and by Marshal Stalin. I see no reason to play in with the British Foreign Office in this matter. The only reason they seem to oppose it is that they fear the effect it would have on their own possessions and those of the Dutch. They have never liked the idea of trusteeship because it is, in some instances, aimed at future independence. This is true in the case of IndoChina.

Each case must, of course, stand on its own feet, but the case of Indo-China is perfectly clear. France has milked it for one hundred years. The people of IndoChina are entitled to something better than that. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-23-2011: On this date in 1885 in a story datelined from San Francisco, The New York Times reported "The Piute Indians are said to be starving on their barren reservation in Nevada. Not one cent of the Congressional appropriation of $7,000 secured by Senator [Henry] Dawes, of Massachusetts, has reached them. The Winter in Nevada has been a very severe one. The reservation is so barren that nothing could be grown on the land. The Indians number 7,0[?]0. Almost their sole means of subsistence has been pine nuts, fish from Pyramid Lake, and rabbits, latterly the only game on the reservation. Sarah Winnemucca, a member of the tribe, who lecture in the East on the condition fo the Piutes, and who is now spending a few days in this city, says: "My people are utterly destitute, and numbers of them are famishing in the snow."; in 1907, Charles Curtis, later vice-president, became the first Native American U.S. Senator; in 2008, the Center for Public Integrity issued a report documenting 935 lies told by George Bush, Colin Powell, Richard Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and other administration officials between September 11, 2001, and March 2003 in their effort to condition the public to want a war against Iraq (most of the lies were told after Congress had already authorized war in Iraq). [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-22-2011: On this date in 1892, Carson City's Appeal reported that lynchings exceeded legal hangings in the United States in 1891, 195 to 123; in 1912, the Carson City News published an account of the alleged November 1911 crimes and arrest of Indian Mike and his deaf mute son, contradicting previous published accounts by other newspapers that portrayed the two as bloodthirsty renegades; in 1982, in an effort to avoid arms reductions, President Reagan linked arms talks with the Soviet Union to changes in Soviet policy toward Poland. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-18-2011: On this date in 1958, a group of Lumbee tribe members, irritated by cross burnings and other white race problems, put participants in a Maxton, North Carolina Ku Klux Klan rally to flight; in 2003, several hundred people filled Reno's Manzanita Bowl hillside to protest George Bush's impending invasion of Iraq; in 2009, the Meridian Star in Mississippi apologized for "not recording for our readers many of the most important civil rights activities that happened in our midst, including protests and sit-ins. That was wrong. We should have loudly protested segregation and the efforts to block voter registration of black East Mississippians. Current management understands while we can‚t go back and undo some past wrongs, we can offer our sincere apology and promise never again to neglect our responsibility to inform you, our readers, about the human rights and dignity every individual is entitled to in America no matter their religion, their ethnic background or the color of their skin." [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-15-2011, King Day: On this date in 1929, Michael King was born in Atlanta (when he was five years old, his father would change both their names to honor Martin Luther); in 2005, during a morning news program on KTNV in Las Vegas, weather reporter Rob Blair referred to "Martin Luther Coon King" and (in an apology for the first reference) "Martin Luther Kong Jr.", prompting a workforce threat of a walkout (Blair was fired the next day). [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com. It includes some of Dr. King's greatest statements.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 1-14-2011: On this date in 1917, James McMillan, who would become a leading African American figure in Nevada history, was born in Mississippi. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

   Poor Denny's Almanac 12-16-2010: On this date in 1773, Bostonians dressed as Native Americans threw tea into Boston bay to protest tea taxes being too low and to demand that those taxes be raised; in 1924, masked men invaded a Nashville, Tenn., hospital, seized and lynched black teenager Samuel Smith; in 1966, Eddie Scott was elected president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP; in 2005, The New York Times admitted that it does not publish all the news that's fit to print. [Click here for the full edition at NevadaLabor.com.]

Copyright © 2010, 2011 Dennis Myers