PRESS RELEASE, For Immediate Release —

MOUND BAYOU, Mississippi, August 21, 2017, The decision to launch the National Afrikan Amerikan Family Reunion Association’s “Youth Liberation Walk”, August 19, 2017, was carried out with overwhelming success even though, in a Townsite with some 25 churches and a population of less than 3,000 people, there was no church available to receive our youth or liberation walkers and families. Fortunately, a female staff member remembered that as a young child she and her classmates were present for a school event in the backyard of my residence. Thus, NAAFRA’s 1-million youth liberation walk movement, honoring the birthdate of Marcus Mojiah Garvey, August 17, 1887 one month after the official birth of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, July 12, 1887; had the love impact of our beloved brother Smokey Robinson’s “Quiet Storm.”

The slave descendants of the unpaid labor force, builders of the strongest foundation of any nation on planet earth, are living witnesses that a turning point away from the perilous pits of poverty is necessary for the survival of the Black Family. At an event in Greenville, Mississippi, attended by me at the invitation of the Local Organizing Committee of the Nation of Islam, I was made aware that this Mississippi delta is second only to the Egyptian delta found at the outlet of the Nile River into the Meditteranean Sea. We were made aware of this by one of the scholars of the NOI who spoke on that occasion; he provided information I deeply appreciate and find invaluable for our Alkebulan Youth Movement. This drives the turning point of an empowerment philosophy of Alkebulan youth, to a willingness to accept challenges that goes far and above what in the past was unheard of for our youth.

We find it necessary to call upon two of our beloved scholars from the text, The Black Family, 4th Edition by Harriette Pipes McAdoo, where scholars Maulana Karenga and Tiamoyo Karenga teach from the words of their essay, The Nguzo Saba and the Black Family

“. . .we continue to argue, that the key crisis and challenge in Black Life is a cultural one, and thus it is imperative that we recover, reconstruct, and bring forth the best of our culture and use it to free ourselves from internal and external constraints and oppression and to enrich and expand our lives in the most meaningful and effective of ways. We define culture here as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, sustains, and develops itself, and introduces itself to history and humanity. In pursuit of this project of cultural recovery, reconstruction, and liberation, we put forth the ‘Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles,’ as a central value foundation and framework to undergird and inform our personal and collective practice as a people. . . .”

Our condition is serious, our need for knowledge is critical at the family level on a wide scale. Thus, my inviting our youth to “home school their parents” is not written as a joke. To win the war against the forces of evil that continue to oppress our families, we must do as another of our scholars teach; that is, we must do our “Homework” found in the text SBA: The Reawakening Of The African Mind, by Asa G. Hilliard III. My purpose in using deep thinking quotes, from several of our beloved scholars in this press release, is to drive home the importance of our children knowing our scholars. My responsibility is to take advantage of every opportunity to see that this happens so by announcing our “Youth Liberation Church Walk Campaign”, beginning August 26, 2017 in honor of Marcus Moziah Garvey’s birth August 17, 1887 (one month after the Official Authorization of Mound Bayou, Mississippi) and calling for 1-million youth families to walk two city blocks into a church for a meeting, we will affirm our liberation for the purpose of making it clear that the Black Family will no longer tolerate not being first class citizens.

My deepest respect, love, and desire goes out to the Gregory Family for one of our greatest warriors transitioning home for his eternal rest in the bosom of the ancestors. It was my good fortune to soldier along side of my beloved brother on two occasions — the James Bird Beaumont Texas tragedy and the Tyisha Miller cop killing in Riverside, California. I will be truly honored in my life’s body of work if it is half as worthy as that of my beloved brother Dick Gregory. ASA! ASA! ASA!

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SOURCE: The National Afrikan Amerikan Ameikan Family Reunion Association (NAAFRA), “A Turning Point In the Delta, Mound Bayou, Mississippi”, August 21, 2017 [PRESS RELEASE]
Contact: Dr. Donald R. Evans, Sr.
Phone: 213-247-4189
Email: dr.drevans@aol.com
Websites: www.WeAreUnitySunday.org & NAAFRA.org

At age 26 in 1993, while her daughter was 3 and her son was 7, Danielle Metz was sentenced to three life sentences plus 20 years. She was married at 18 to Glenn who was 30 and evidence suggests she never knew her husband was involved with drugs. She was arrested, tried, and convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Her daughter, now 26, initiated a clemency petition on change.org and gathered 60,000 signatures. SEE ADDITIONAL DETAILS: http://www.candoclemency.com/danielle-metz/ Tuesday, President Obama commuted prison sentences for 111 people, 35 of whom were serving life sentences. After more than two decades of trying, Danielle Metz’ name finally made it on that list. She’ll be released from prison Dec. 28, 2016. During the month of August, President Obama commuted the prison sentences of 325 people. He has granted clemency to 673 people since he took office.

The Formerly Incarcerated Students in Transition (F.I.S.T.) is a program at El Camino College’s Compton Center designed for the formerly incarcerated to engage in education and advancement to freedom from parole. The Compton Parole department has asked those that have AT RISK YOUTH and others that are on parole or probation to get the word out to all formerly incarcerated individuals that are seeking rehabilitation to join this movement. This program launched in the summer of 2016. Thus far, there are impressive STATISTICS: The F.I.S.T Program has enrolled over 60 new students since August 2016 and 42% are African American males — a population identified as underrepresented at the Compton Center. If you have a loved one in need of a job or vocational skill training or who wants to obtain a degree or a loved one in need of counseling, please tell them about this program so they can take full advantage of all it has to offer. The F.I.S.T. program provides academic, social, and economic support for students reentering the community after incarceration. For further information, please contact either Dr. Joseph Lewis (student services advisor and club advisor to the F.I.S.T. Program) or Michael Chattom (West Coast Director of NABSIO.

Daniele Metz was sentenced to three life terms, plus 20 years in federal prison under mandatory drug sentencing laws, but now it’s time for her to come home, say her family, attorney and supporters who are fighting for her freedom. Mercy is the only way she will ever be free and reunited with her children. Her supporters hope executive clemency from the president will set her free. Her conviction was a travesty to begin with, and anyone who carefully reviews her case would agree, Ms. Metz’s supporters insist.

She was pregnant and 17 when the father of her baby was murdered and she was as vulnerable as one could be, according to her attorney Jerry Mooney. At 18, she became involved with a 30-year-old drug dealer, who controlled her, he said. Ms. Metz was convicted as part of a “continuing enterprise,” meaning she was the wife of a king pin. Her life forever changed. “For some reason that I can’t really understand as I go back through the record, they gave the king pin enhancements to her and by giving her the king pin enhancements, she ends up with a life sentence instead of a sentence upon which she could be released and probably would be being released about now,” Atty. Mooney told The Final Call.

According to records, the young wife had escaped, separated from her husband and started over in New Orleans. Two months later, she was indicted with her husband and others whom she’d never met on drug and money laundering charges. The law doesn’t particularly care about the fact she’d left her husband and looked at what her role would have been, according to her attorney. Her husband used her as a go-between and was controlling, Atty. Mooney continued. “He was older. He was mature. She was insecure and a younger girl and he was able to get her to do things, so she’s not really out there as a decision maker but operating as his sort of representative,” Atty. Mooney stated.

Separation, hardship and grief
Ms. Metz’s children were just four and seven when the tragedy separated them. Gleneisha Hayter, now 24, shared she’s still experiencing the negative effects of her mother’s incarceration. “It hurts to know that my mom’s not here, but it’s also impacting me in a positive way to go forth and try to reach my goals,” she said. Her positivity gives her mom comfort, she said. She looks forward to visiting her mom from time to time, but looking back it’s hard because incarceration stripped them of so many experiences others take for granted. “It’s like going to regular grade school, high school, all those moments. She wasn’t there for graduation or when I got married, so there were some big moments in life that she was absent from because of this situation,” Ms. Hayter lamented. For Carl Bernard, his mother’s incarceration hits home when he reflects on how hands-on she was when he was a little boy. Then one day, it all vanished, he said. Her affection, physical attention and care, help with homework, fun at the park, it was all locked away when she was shut behind bars, he said. “She was my best friend as well, so it took me some time to adjust, but I can’t say I really ever did. It was my worst nightmare as a human being. I could never fathom something like that happening, my mother being taken away,” Mr. Bernard continued. For a long time, he experienced bad dreams. He said he didn’t know how to feel or how to relate to everyday tasks like going to school after that. He couldn’t relate, though he was fortunate enough to live with his grandmother, he said. “There’s no bond like your mother’s bond and the isolation is the most terrible thing I’ve ever been through in my life,” Mr. Bernard told The Final Call. “I still feel lonely. I still feel as if I’m by myself. When I write letters to my mom it really tears me apart in a way that one who’s not gone through that situation of being separated from their mother ever could imagine.”

Hope in new clemency laws
The suffering of Ms. Metz and her children is part of why activist and ex-offender Michael Lewis is pushing a petition. He wants her name on the next list of presidential pardons. Just under 600 people had signed the petition, which needed about another 400 signatures. His work is for Ms. Metz, her family, and others trapped by mandatory minimum sentences. “I served my time, got my life, and right now I fight for those that don’t have a voice. I’m an advocate for justice against these unfair sentencing laws,” Mr. Lewis stated. When the Justice Department announced its new criteria for clemency April 23, Mr. Lewis gained even more hope.

The Justice Department is asking for clemency petitions for sentences which would have resulted in a different, lesser sentence with changes in drug laws. To be eligible, prisoners must be serving a sentence in a federal prison and one that would be shorter if imposed today, according to Attorney General Eric Holder. The criteria further is for prisoners who have served at least 10 years, have no significant prior convictions, and with non-violent histories and no significant ties to organized crime, gangs or cartels.

Although Atty. Mooney said Ms. Metz doesn’t fall clearly within the new criteria because of the nature of how her case was presented, there’s a lot of support behind her and he expects more when his office files the petition, but they’re waiting for the right time. That’ll likely be on the heels of the first round of releases under the Justice Department’s new criteria, he said. “We’ve got some good issues and reasons why the White House should look hard at her case and take some action,” Atty. Mooney said.

Clemency Project 2014
Julie Stewart, founder and president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, thinks the new criteria are more generous than ever. Before, at least over the last 13 years, the U.S. Pardon Attorney has been incredibly reluctant to even look at a case that might include a gun and now people aren’t disqualified for having a gun, she said. “I know it sounds like a small thing, but it’s not. It’s a big thing because there are so many cases we’ve seen where a co-defendant may have a gun, but you get charged with it as well and that disqualifies you from any kind of relief,” she explained. The rest of the criteria are similar to what’s already required for clemency eligibility, she said, except for the 10-year mandate.

According to Ms. Stewart, the Deputy Attorney General initially talked about expanding reach to cases of inmates serving life or near life sentences, meaning sentences like 30 years or more. To reduce the number to 10 is a step in the right direction, Ms. Stewart said. “Obviously, we wish they wouldn’t put any limit on it and just look at everybody’s case and who’s deserving, but because of the numbers of people in prison serving sentences that are long, I think they just had to say we’re going to start here,” Ms. Stewart said.

Inmates who think they meet the criteria in every federal prison should have begun receiving surveys, she said. The Bureau of Prisons will then send applications to the Clemency Project 2014, a working group which includes five major advocacy organizations. The groups will review the cases and recommend those who fit the new criteria, and connect them with lawyers. “It’s a long process and is going to be much more work than it has been … But work that’s well worth it if it means at the end of the day we’re going to see people get liberty, get freedom that they otherwise wouldn’t have had and perhaps would have died in prison,” Ms. Stewart told The Final Call.

SOURCE: The Final Call – National News – SEE ARTICLE: , “Clemency only hope after long mandatory sentences”
by Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent
Final Call Newspaper Publishing
734 West 79th Street
Chicago, Illnois 60620
WEBSITE – www.FinalCall.com
PHONE – (773) 602-1230

Giving is a basic principle of proper money management and it is commanded in Scripture. The members of a morning prayer and scripture line have decided they want to bless one incarcerated individual each month with an unexpected gift of $25.00 and send some Christian literature wanting nothing in return. NABSIO’s prison ministry will assist in this effort by providing a different inmate name with address and booking number each month. If you have an incarcerated loved one, please contact us so we can send your loved one a monetary blessing.

The Community Legal Research Center is a proud partner member of AVP and would like to take this time to ask someone to facilitate a meeting or attend a basic and advanced training meeting by attending AVP’s sessions in Santa Monica or in various areas of the State. From time to time, AVP has meetings on training and on general sessions knowledge in various places within Los Angeles County to help one learn the nature of AVP, how it got started, and particulars such as transforming power, affirmations, trust the process, and other key elements of the AVP philosophy. The President of Community Legal Research Center, Michael Chattom, learned under Doug and Diana Couch — probably the best trainers in the state. They usually go to the Statewide and National (America) conferences and are usually the Top facilitators in the World competition. For now, I would strongly urge those that have people still locked up in Prison with violence problems to participate in AVP. Please take time to learn and make it your business to share information about AVP (The Alternatives to Violence Project) with your incarcerated loved ones. This self help program helps address issues of violence that incarcerated people may be facing — especially LIFERS who have indeterminate sentences hanging above their heads.

Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) facilitators are needed for an exciting new opportunity in the LOMPOC Federal Prison!!! A new warden, who had AVP workshops in his previous post in upstate New York, is enthusiastic about having AVP workshops in the Medium Security facility at Lompoc. He has directed his staff to give us what we need to make it happen! PLEASE respond ASAP if you are willing and able to go to Lompoc to facilitate AVP workshops. Because AVP has not been in Lompoc for many years and is in only 5 other Federal prisons in the country, we expect there will be NO trained facilitators inside, so we need lots of outside facilitators for these workshops. If you are interested, please contact Bill Dial for more information. For formerly incarcerated facilitators we have been assured that compensation for travel and lodging can be provided by the USP. PLEASE REPLY TO: Bill Dial at wkdial@hotmail.com or call (805) 220-6159 and please provide your email and phone contact information.

We need campaign workers for next Saturday, February 20th, from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. If you are available, please call (310) 722-2757 as soon as possible. We will go door-to-door to gather and distribute voter information for the City of Carson. We need approximately 30 people and the pay is $10 per hour. Training will start at 9:00 a.m. sharp! We must complete our list of workers by this afternoon SO please call us at (310) 722-2757 ASAP!

An “Information Walk” to address six issues of City Services, Compton VHF Post, Clean Streets, Pot Holes, Transparency, and Bring Back Compton College was held at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 outside the front of Compton City Hall. Activists and advocates came out to do what they do best … TALK SMACK!!! Also carrying picket signs were members of the Community Legal Research Center (a local non-profit activist and advocacy organization) along with concerned citizens of Compton — all wanting to draw proactive attention and action to the issues and all intent on doing so by exercising their First Amendment Right to protest for the issues and against corrupt and wrongful acts within the City of Compton. Our First Amendment right guarantees … freedom of speech and the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

     

   

PRESS RELEASE — Unity Sunday is November 8, 2015.

The NAAFRA UNITY SUNDAY OPERATIONAL PLAN with the blessing of our Heavenly Father, is moving forward collectively to activate the growing officially of our ‘NAAFRA Million Dollar Perpetual Unity Fund’ the monetary strength, needed to begin bringing into reality the resources needed to officially announce the Black Church and Black Family America is firmly positioned as the vanguard in our family movement; for any and all, actions taken to remove all impoverished conditions from the life circumstances of far too many of our families.

In the activation process November 8, 2015 is the official date for all churches to be registered in our ‘Umbrella of Churches in Support of Our Unity Sunday Plan’ at NAAFRA.ORG. In this most historic day, to make their first ($1) donation to be deposited in the 100 Million Dollar Perpetual Unity Fund PayPal Account, for the purpose of financing (paying the cost) to begin the long process to replace poverty with a plateau of plenty.

Mound Bayou, Mississippi is the historic townsite where this historic change is now coming into view. From this oldest Black Townsite in America from July 12, 1887 to the present day. Our Family Movement’s Field Headquarters, jewel of the Greater Delta of the stat of Mississippi. Our NAAFRA staff is in full agreement with our beloved brother James Clingman that, “The appropriate response to those who transgress against us must be grounded in economics” Without our family movement moving into the reality of building our membership to a Marcus Garvey size number, we can never get to the point where leverage, can become an effective to be used against those who transgress against us.

November 8, 2015 where all talk ends, and action begins, to get our Black Church/Black Family involved in growing our Unity Fund and membership numbers in response to our President’s clarion call for help in eliminating all poverty from the lifestyles of far too many American families. With this our family plan fully operational, the formerly incarcerated family member will not have to feel the pain of being stigmatized, because, they will know in advance their family is waiting to take them back into the family. The shame, as our beloved brother Dorsey Nunn, co-founded “All of Us or None” himself a formerly incarcerated individual once put it, “The biggest hurdle you gatta get over when you walk out those prison gates is shame—-that shame, that stigma, that label, that thing that you wear around your neck saying ‘I’m a criminal.’ It’s like a yoke around your neck, and it’ll drag you down, even kill you if you let it. Fixing this problem and others that are burdensome to the family, will become less burdensome once the Church Family movement is focused on bringing it under control of this plan. TIME FOR TALK IS OVER! (NOTE: this is a tax deductible contribution.)



SOURCE: Dr. Donald R. Evans, Sr., Founder/President
The National Afrikan Amerikan Family Reunion Association (NAAFRA)
website – www.NAAFRA.org
email – Dr.DREvans@aol.com