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IN MEMORIAM: Funeral Services Planned for Wilmington Ten Member, James ‘Bun’ McKoy

NNPA NEWSWIRE — James “Bun” McKoy, a member of the civil rights and political prisoner group The Wilmington Ten, and the other defendants received a total of 282 years in prison. At the age of 19, McKoy’s 29-year sentence was the third-longest handed down to any of the members. Chavis, the then-24-year-old commander, was sentenced to 34 years in prison, while Tindall got 31 years. The Wilmington 10, consisting of nine Black males and one white woman, spent nearly a decade in jail before their convictions were overturned by federal appellate courts because of prosecutorial misconduct.
The post IN MEMORIAM: Funeral Services Planned for Wilmington Ten Member, James ‘Bun’ McKoy first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

1 year ago

November 16, 2023

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

Funeral services for James “Bun” McKoy, a member of the civil rights and political prisoner group The Wilmington Ten, are set for 3:30 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 17. McKoy died on November 10th, at the age of 69.

The cause of death was not immediately disclosed. McKoy’s life was forever changed on Feb. 1, 1971, when Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. arrived in Wilmington. Chavis made the journey at the invitation of a local preacher who wanted the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. disciple to lead a boycott of the desegregated high schools that refused to acknowledge King, who had been slain just three years earlier.

By 1969, the city had only three high schools: all-white New Hanover and Hoggard, and all-Black Williston Senior High School. Officials eventually relocated Black students and teachers to New Hanover and Hoggard and closed Williston, and African Americans faced increased racially motivated name-calling, physical attacks, and threats in the schools, while riots occurred virtually daily.

Chavis, McKoy, Connie Tindall, Marvin “Chilly” Patrick, Wayne Moore, Reginald Epps, Jerry Jacobs, Willie Earl Vereen, William “Joe” Wright, Jr., and Ann Shepard comprised the Wilmington Ten, and the group advocated for Black history classes, respect for Martin Luther King Jr. and all Black people, and equality.

However, tensions reached a boil in Wilmington, with the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalists firebombing buildings and shooting at Black pupils, and then on a cold February night, the popular Mike’s Grocery Store was firebombed, leading to more chaos.

As police and firefighters approached, a sniper fired at members of the Wilmington Ten, striking one of the officers. “Chilly” Patrick, one of the Wilmington Ten, stood in front of a sniper’s bullets to save Chavis. Police ultimately arrested the group and falsely charged them with firebombing the grocery store.

Racist prosecutors forced witnesses to go against their court-appointed lawyers during the trial and give false testimony accusing McKoy and others of arson and violence towards law enforcement.

When it became clear that 10 African Americans would be seated for jury duty, Prosecutor Jay Stroud pretended to be ill during jury selection. A second trial included only two African Americans, and the Wilmington Ten were convicted.

McKoy and the other defendants received a total of 282 years in prison. At the age of 19, McKoy’s 29-year sentence was the third-longest handed down to any of the members. Chavis, the then-24-year-old commander, was sentenced to 34 years in prison, while Tindall got 31 years. The Wilmington 10, consisting of nine Black males and one white woman, spent nearly a decade in jail before their convictions were overturned by federal appellate courts because of prosecutorial misconduct.

In 1976, Amnesty International took over the group’s defense. The London-based human rights organization declared the Wilmington Ten to be “prisoners of conscience.” They were arrested not for the crimes they were charged with, but because of their political activities. Amnesty International’s proclamation about the Wilmington Ten upset some and embarrassed others, especially when they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that year, as reported by The New York Times.

“Soon the charge was repeated and amplified by the American Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, who contended in an interview with a French newspaper that the United States harbored ‘hundreds, perhaps thousands of political prisoners,’” according to the newspaper.

“The Wilmington Ten, for example, are innocent,” Young stated. He later reiterated that the charges against the group were “trumped up,” according to the Times.

In December 1980, the convictions of the Wilmington Ten were finally overturned. Timothy Tyson, a North Carolina history, and Duke University visiting professor, told CNN that he was handed the Wilmington Ten prosecutor’s handwritten notes before 2012, when the NNPA and NAACP called for pardons of innocence for the Wilmington 10. “It was pretty shocking stuff,” Tyson said of the incident.

He mentioned at least six potential jurors who had “KKK Good!!” scribbled next to their names. It said next to a woman’s name, “NO, she associates with Negroes.”

The prosecutor, Jay Stroud, had written the benefits and drawbacks of a mistrial on the back of the legal pad, according to Tyson. One of the benefits was a new jury and a fresh start.

In 2012, 40 years after they were wrongfully convicted, the Wilmington 10 were pardoned by North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue.

“These convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina’s criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer,” the state’s governor stated at the time. “Justice demands that this stain finally be removed.”

Responding to McKoy’s death, Chavis reflected on the group and his fallen comrades. “Once again, I am saddened at the passing of another freedom fighting member of the Wilmington Ten,” Chavis remarked. He said McKoy was dedicated to the freedom movement in Wilmington and globally. “He was also a master base guitarist who would always play the right beat with the inspiring music of freedom,” Chavis recalled. “May James ‘Bun’ McKoy rest in power and in peace, and may his memory and uplifting spirit live on for generations to come.”

The post IN MEMORIAM: Funeral Services Planned for Wilmington Ten Member, James ‘Bun’ McKoy first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Stacy M. Brown

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Recently Approved Budget Plan Favors Wealthy, Slashes Aid to Low-Income Americans

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts

Published

16 hours ago

March 21, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

The new budget framework approved by Congress may result in sweeping changes to the federal safety net and tax code. The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts. A new analysis from Yale University’s Budget Lab shows the proposals in the House’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Resolution would lead to a drop in after-tax-and-transfer income for the poorest households while significantly boosting revenue for the wealthiest Americans. Last month, Congress passed its Concurrent Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2025 (H. Con. Res. 14), setting revenue and spending targets for the next decade. The resolution outlines $1.5 trillion in gross spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax reductions between FY2025 and FY2034, along with $500 billion in unspecified deficit reduction.

Congressional Committees have now been instructed to identify policy changes that align with these goals. Three of the most impactful committees—Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means—have been tasked with proposing major changes. The Agriculture Committee is charged with finding $230 billion in savings, likely through changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Energy and Commerce must deliver $880 billion in savings, likely through Medicaid reductions. Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee must craft tax changes totaling no more than $4.5 trillion in new deficits, most likely through extending provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Although the resolution does not specify precise changes, reports suggest lawmakers are eyeing steep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid benefits while seeking to make permanent tax provisions that primarily benefit high-income individuals and corporations.

To examine the potential real-world impact, Yale’s Budget Lab modeled four policy changes that align with the resolution’s goals:

A 30 percent across-the-board cut in SNAP funding.
A 15 percent cut in Medicaid funding.
Permanent extension of the individual and estate tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Permanent extension of business tax provisions including 100% bonus depreciation, expense of R&D, and relaxed limits on interest deductions.

Yale researchers determined that the combined effect of these policies would reduce the after-tax-and-transfer income of the bottom 20 percent of earners by 5 percent in the calendar year 2026. Households in the middle would see a modest 0.6 percent gain. However, the top five percent of earners would experience a 3 percent increase in their after-tax-and-transfer income.

Moreover, the analysis concluded that more than 100 percent of the net fiscal benefit from these changes would go to households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution. This happens because lower-income groups would lose more in government benefits than they would gain from any tax cuts. At the same time, high-income households would enjoy significant tax reductions with little or no loss in benefits.

“These results indicate a shift in resources away from low-income tax units toward those with higher incomes,” the Budget Lab report states. “In particular, making the TCJA provisions permanent for high earners while reducing spending on SNAP and Medicaid leads to a regressive overall effect.” The report notes that policymakers have floated a range of options to reduce SNAP and Medicaid outlays, such as lowering per-beneficiary benefits or tightening eligibility rules. While the Budget Lab did not assess each proposal individually, the modeling assumes legislation consistent with the resolution’s instructions. “The burden of deficit reduction would fall largely on those least able to bear it,” the report concluded.

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A Threat to Pre-emptive Pardons

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process.

Published

16 hours ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

President Trump is working to undo the traditional presidential pardon powers by questioning the Biden administration’s pre-emptive pardons issued just days before January 20, 2025. President Trump is seeking retribution against the January 6th House Select Committee. The Trump Justice Department has been tasked to find loopholes to overturn the pardons that could lead to legal battles for the Republican and Democratic nine-member committee. Legal scholars and those closely familiar with the pardon process worked with the Biden administration to ensure the preemptive pardons would stand against any retaliatory knocks from the incoming Trump administration. A source close to the Biden administration’s pardons said, in January 2025, “I think pardons are all valid. The power is unreviewable by the courts.”

However, today that same source had a different statement on the nuances of the new Trump pardon attack. That attack places questions about Biden’s use of an autopen for the pardons. The Trump argument is that Biden did not know who was pardoned as he did not sign the documents. Instead, the pardons were allegedly signed by an autopen. The same source close to the pardon issue said this week, “unless he [Trump] can prove Biden didn’t know what was being done in his name. All of this is in uncharted territory. “ Meanwhile, an autopen is used to make automatic or remote signatures. It has been used for decades by public figures and celebrities.

Months before the Biden pardon announcement, those in the Biden White House Counsel’s Office, staff, and the Justice Department were conferring tirelessly around the clock on who to pardon and how. The concern for the preemptive pardons was how to make them irrevocable in an unprecedented process. At one point in the lead-up to the preemptive pardon releases, it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process. President Trump began the threat of an investigation for the January 6th Select Committee during the Hill proceedings. Trump has threatened members with investigation or jail.

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Reaction to The Education EO

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Meanwhile, the new Education EO jeopardizes funding for students seeking a higher education. Duncan states, PellGrants are in jeopardy after servicing “6.5 million people” giving them a chance to go to college.

Published

17 hours ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

There are plenty of negative reactions to President Donald Trump’s latest Executive Order abolishing the Department of Education. As Democrats call yesterday’s action performative, it would take an act of Congress for the Education Department to close permanently. “This blatantly unconstitutional executive order is just another piece of evidence that Trump has absolutely no respect for the Constitution,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) who is the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee. “By dismantling ED, President Trump is implementing his own philosophy on education, which can be summed up in his own words, ‘I love the poorly educated.’ I am adamantly opposed to this reckless action, said Rep. Bobby Scott who is the most senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Morgan State University President Dr. David Wilson chimed in saying “I’m deeply concerned about efforts to shift federal oversight in education back to the states, particularly regarding equity, justice, and fairness. History has shown us what happens when states are left unchecked—Black and poor children are too often denied access to the high-quality education they deserve. In 1979 then President Jimmy Carter signed a law creating the Department of Education. Arne Duncan, former Obama Education Secretary, reminds us that both Democratic and Republican presidents have kept education a non-political issue until now. However, Duncan stressed Republican presidents have contributed greatly to moving education forward in this country.

During a CNN interview this week Duncan said during the Civil War President Abraham “Lincoln created the land grant system” for colleges like Tennessee State University. “President Ford brought in IDEA.” And “Nixon signed Pell Grants into law.” In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush which increased federal oversight of schools through standardized testing. Meanwhile, the new Education EO jeopardizes funding for students seeking higher education. Duncan states, PellGrants are in jeopardy after servicing “6.5 million people” giving them a chance to go to college. Wilson details, “that 40 percent of all college students rely on Pell Grants and student loans.”

Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) says this Trump action “impacts students pursuing higher education and threatens 26 million students across the country, taking billions away from their educational futures. Meanwhile, During the president’s speech in the East Room of the White House Thursday, Trump criticized Baltimore City, and its math test scores with critical words. Governor West Moore, who is opposed to the EO action, said about dismantling the Department of Education, “Leadership means lifting people up, not punching them down.”