The Wilmington 10

Falsely convicted individuals in the US = roughly 20,000

Incarcerated inmate in the state of North Carolina = $29,965/yr

282 years (Wilmington 10’s collective sentences) = $8,450,130

Pardon the Wilmington 10 = PRICELESS

Sign the petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/nc-governor-bev-perdue-pardon-the-wilmington-ten

Innocence Project (video) - The Wilmington, the Stroud File

Adding to the long list of injustices in the United States of America - February 6, 1971 forever changed the lives of ten individuals:

The Wilmington 10

Connie Tindall* - sentenced to 31 years

Jerry Jacobs* - sentenced to 29 years

William ‘Joe’ Wright, Jr.* - sentenced to 29 years

Ann Shepard* - sentenced to 15 years

Rev. Benjamin Chavis - sentenced to 34 years

Marvin Patrick - sentenced to 29 years

Wayne Moore - sentenced to 29 years

Reginald Epps - sentenced to 28 years

James McKoy - sentenced to 29 years

Willie ‘Earl’ Vereen - sentenced to 29 years

The 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of the Wilmington 10 in 1980 but full pardons have yet to be granted.

 Articles worth reading…

The Wilmington Journal - The Wilmington Ten: 40 years of loss and struggle

http://wilmingtonjournal.com/the-wilmington-ten-part-1-40-years-of-loss-and-struggle/

NAACP says jury was selected to convict Wilmington 10

http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2012/nov/27/naacp-says-jury-was-selected-convict-wilmington-10-ar-2814629/

* = deceased

State of Education ~ Behind the Acheivement Gap of Native Americans

TELL ME MORE from NPR news, provided a month long series during the Native American Heritage Month of conversations with Anton Treuer, author and professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota.  Over the course of the month the following issues were discussed - who can call himself/herself Native American and why, the political and economic issues in Indian country, and pop culture.  In concluding the Native American Heritage Month, the final series with Professor Treuer discussed education.

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/22/165662639/behind-the-native-american-achievement-gap

An excerpt from the interview:

TREUER: What it really boils down to is that, in spite of it all, although the, you know, the residential boarding school system has been reformed, although not eliminated - believe it or not, there are still four Indian boarding schools run by the United States federal government today. They've been reformed, so they're not beating people for the speaking of their tribal languages anymore, but they've kind of survived as a vestigial remnant of this experience.

But in spite of all it, going to school native in this country really still means getting an assimilation. You go to school. You get a sugarcoated version of Christopher Columbus and the first Thanksgiving. And you get very few other opportunities, even if you're native, to learn about yourself. And it's not the intention of people who design curriculum standards or those who teach it to out or marginalize others, but it is the effect.

And I can share one counterexample, because we can point to a lot of things that don't work, like 50 percent of the Native population are failing state-mandated tests in English and math in this country - half. But I'll share a story about something that is working, because to me that really tells a lot.

On the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, which is located in Wisconsin, there's a public school system nearby in the town of Hayward. And their statistics for the Native population mirror the national average. Around half of the kids were failing state-mandated tests in English and math.

There's a group of people who created a tribal language immersion school. So they said: We will meet all state-mandated curriculum guidelines. We'll just use the tribal language to deliver the material to the kids. To make a long story short, because there are a lot of things that they did over there to make that happen. To make a long story short, for 13 years in a row, the tribal language immersion school has had a 100 percent pass rate in state-mandated tests in English, administered in English.

November 10 Declared 'Malala Day'