The Voting Rights Act of 1965 remains a landmark centerpiece of civil rights legislation, effectively outlawing voting discrimination and supporting the United States Constitution’s 15th Amendment. One of the Act’s aims is to give power to federal authorities in ensuring certain states with a history of voter discrimination obey the “preclearance” policy covered under Section 5 of the Act, which means that states (known as “covered jurisdictions”) cannot make changes to the voting laws unless approved by the Department Of Justice. Today (Feb. 27), the Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the Shelby County v. Holder case, which focuses heavily on Section 5′s constitutional merit.

SEE ALSO: A Vivid Glimpse Into Slavery In Brazil

The significance of Shelby County v. Holder is staggering: If you’re a voter in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi, and Louisiana, Section 5 mandates that these covered jurisdictions must have voting law changes cleared by Attorney General Eric Holder‘s office and the United States District Court in the District of Columbia.

Without the protections of Section 5, these states can make changes to the laws and risk disenfranchising voters by implementing unnecessary changes that serve as nothing more than barriers.

If Section 5 is voted out of the Act, voting rights in these areas could essentially be snatched away. Voters of color will most certainly feel the deepest impact, a fact that many on both sides of the aisle have taken notice of.

SEE ALSO: Will A Black Justice Set Back The Vote?

The Act has been renewed and amended four times by Congress; the last 25-year extension was signed in to law by then-President George W. Bush in 2006. Those in opposition of the law, in particular Section 5, claim that Congress made an error in allowing an extension on that portion of the Act.

Lawmakers from preclearance states, led by Republican Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland, claimed that the Act unfairly targeted them and stated they’ve made changes to protect the voting rights of its citizens.

Shelby County v. Holder isn’t the first time the covered jurisdiction of Alabama’s Shelby County has sought to file suit against the Department of Justice. The county claims that enforcement of preclearance is unconstitutional and that federal authorities have yet to produce facts that give solid reasons for the states to follow preclearance procedures.

Section 5 opponents essentially believe that race discrimination in voting is no longer a threat to the electoral process, although the last general election proved time and again that flaws in the system were abundant.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits voting discrimination based on race and possible language barriers. After an amendment in 1982 to the Section, lawsuits can be brought against state and local jurisdictions that have allegedly violated the agreements set forth in Section 2. Coupled with Section 5, it would appear that the Voting Rights Act offers all the legal protection a voter of color would need but that hasn’t been entirely true considering the stakes ahead.

Curiously, many of Section 5’s opponents are those from the Right and the bulk of the covered jurisdictions requiring preclearance are in the South – at one time the largest opponents to the Voting Rights Act.

In essence, these states claim that they are tired of being monitored closely when it comes to elections. They assert that the section is unconstitutional and in fact undermines the efforts of civil rights activists as jurisdictions have to maintain racially segregated and gerrymandered voting districts.

Although much of the Act’s sections may seem nothing more than esoteric legalese, the Shelby County v. Holder puts Section 5’s constitutionality under the glaring lights of examination.

Will the court uphold the law and keep these states under preclearance rule or will states have free reign to change voting laws as they please?

These are key questions as a deeply divided Congress continues to widen the partisan chasm in the second term of President Barack Obama. For the election cycles of 2014 and 2016, Wednesday’s argument is a perfect example of the complicated arena of voting rights.

SEE ALSO: A Vivid Glimpse Into Slavery In Brazil

WASHINGTON (AP) — Restaurateur B. Smith (pictured) will be the guest chef Wednesday in a White House restaurant run by the Navy.

Word got out during an interview that Michelle Obama taped ahead of time and was broadcast Tuesday on Smith’s program on SiriusXM radio.

Smith said her menu will be soulful and healthy. Mrs. Obama described White House staff as anxious to get their lips on Smith’s food.

Smith’s restaurant at Washington’s Union Station serves Cajun, Creole, and Southern food. She also has two restaurants in New York.

The White House mess was established in 1951. Cabinet secretaries can make reservations to eat in, while West and East wing staff are served by a takeout window.

Smith’s stint is part of Black History Month observances by the White House.

SEE ALSO: Evolution of Mom Dancing: Michelle Obama Gets It In On ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ [VIDEO]

“Cannibal cop” Gilberto Valle (pictured) is on trial for a creepy plot to capture, rape, and eat women, but apparently, he wasn’t fond of feasting on Black women, according to communications shared with one co-conspirator, according to the N.Y. Daily News.

RELATED: Cannibal Cop Pleads Not Guilty Of Alleged Plot To Cook, Eat And Rape Women

In one collection of e-mails from last August, a friend named “Moody Blues” asks Valle:

Say, if I got a Black girl here, would you still be interested in trying her? (I’ve one in mind who is about to start her Nurse’s training)”

Valle responds:

No, I don’t think so, sorry.

Moody Blues e-mails back:

Even cooked?

Valle says back:

Eh, Black girls do nothing for me whatsoever.

Clearly disappointed, Moody Blues writes:

Fair enough but the meat is very VERY good.

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But the richness doesn’t end there, folks. Turns out Moody Blues may have a thing for serving Black women on his dinner plate…because apparently he’s already done so.

“Thought I had a chance with the Kenyan student a few weeks ago but no further with her either,” Moody Blues wrote to Valle in a later batch of e-mails.

He continues:

“Just got her number, but no replies. I know you aren’t into dark meat, but I’ve had it and it’s really good!”

“White meat all the way!” Valle  says in a later response.

Undeterred, Moody proves he likes it ALL:

“ANY meat for me, race unimportant,” he writes.

Valle then encourages Moody Blues to “try what you are happiest with first, see if the reality lives up to your expectations and alter if you think there is something else you want to try…The chances of getting a girl are few and far in between, so make the most of any chances you do get.”

“That’s why I am not so choosy as to race (otherwise I’d probably only eat dark meat actually,” Moody Blues says back.

RELATED: ‘Cannibal Cop’ Allegedly Planned To Cook And Eat More Than 100 Women

LONDON — A new database launched Wednesday lets Britons uncover uncomfortable information: whether their ancestors owned slaves.

SEE ALSO: Rosa Parks Statue Set To Be Unveiled At Capital

Researchers at University College London spent three years compiling a searchable listing of thousands of people who received compensation for loss of their “possessions” when slave ownership was outlawed by Britain in 1833.

Some 46,000 people were paid a total of 20 million pounds – the equivalent of 40 percent of all annual government spending at the time – after the freeing of slaves in British colonies in the Caribbean, Mauritius, and southern Africa.

Their descendants include writers Graham Greene and George Orwell. Orwell’s real name was Eric Blair, and the trustees of his great-grandfather, Charles Blair, were paid 4,442 pounds for 218 slaves on a plantation in Jamaica.

Research associate Keith McClelland said the project would help show how the legacy of slavery still affects Britain.

He says 10 percent of wealthy 19th-century Britons were directly connected to the slave trade, and proceeds helped build railways, businesses, buildings, and art collections that still exist today.

“You are talking about a very important component of the British economy from the 17th century onwards,” McClelland said.

Britain’s Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807, but slavery itself was not outlawed in its colonies until 26 years later. The United States followed in 1865 and Brazil in 1888.

In 2006, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed “deep sorrow” for Britain’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, though some felt that fell short of a full apology. The next year he said: “I have said we’re sorry and I say it again now.”

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SEE ALSO: Son Questioned After Mom’s Dismembered Body Found In Garbage Bags

Slavehouse to the White House Start Gallery

This Black History Month, we honor the GAME CHANGERS: Everyday heroes whose actions make life better for the people around them. SEE ALL OUR GAME CHANGERS HERE.

Tia Norfleet

Place of Residence: Virginia

Why She’s a Game Changer: It’s usually a diss to say a woman is fast but in Norfleet’s case, it is a compliment like no other. That’s because Norfleet is the first African-American woman to be licensed as a driver for NASCAR.

SEE ALSO: CEO Makes Difference In At-Risk Youth Against All Odds

Norfleet, daughter of racing veteran Bobby Norfleet, made her debut in August. Earlier this month, she started in the ARCA racing series, which serves as a stepping stone to the major NASCAR events. Wouldn’t it be great if Norfleet was in the pole position one day like trailblazer Danica Patrick was Sunday for the Daytona 500?

Patrick finished 8th, the highest finishing spot for a woman. Norfleet has aspirations to smash records one day.

I have been inspired by her a lot,” Norfleet told Reuters about Patrick. Danica has shown that as a female we can hang with the boys. We can do it just as well as anyone else can….She is motivation for me to get out there, do good, and give it my all while knowing that I don’t have to back down because I am a female. It makes me work even harder.

Norfleet started racing in a battery-powered Barbie car that her dad souped up, because his young daughter had a need for speed. Norfleet says she drove the car until “the wheels fell off.” Norfleet’s love from the sport just grew from there and she knew she wanted to race for a living by the age of 14.

Now that she has started on her path to success, Norfleet wants to inspire others. She has a literacy foundation called “Driven2Read.” She tells Reuters:

That’s my main goal — to motivate young girls of all colours, all races and all creeds, and to let them know that you don’t have to go out and do something that is immoral or not right….I want them to know you can be positive and you can achieve things. When people tell you you can’t do something, I just want to motivate them to be all that they can be…I’m all about empowerment and, at the same time, I want to grow into the woman that I want to be.

SEE ALSO: Community Coordinator Helps Unemployed Find Jobs While Helping Local Entrepreneurs Grow Businesses

As national Republican leadership continues to tout a push to re-imagine itself as a party beyond the scope of aging, heterosexual, White men in to cultural homogeny, its actual GOP members in positions of power at the state level are keeping it real…reductive.

SEE ALSO: Will A Black Justice Set Back The Vote?

Last week, Missouri state Rep. Mike Leara (pictured) proposed legislation that would make it a felony for lawmakers to propose any bill that would regulate firearms. In Leara’s bill:

…[A]ny member of the general assembly who proposes a piece of legislation that further restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States, shall be guilty of a class D felony.

Isn’t that mature?

Meanwhile, two weeks ago, Virginia Delegate C. Todd Gilbert managed to successfully kill a bipartisan proposal to protect LGBT state government employees from discrimination. Despite the bill passing the Virginia Senate by a 24-16 majority - all Democrats and four Republicans – Gilbert felt there was no “proof” that anti-gay discrimination exists.

Think Progress reports that Gilbert told his colleagues in his subcommittee:

Among all the people who spoke, there was not a single example of one that was discriminated against in public employment. I challenge those in the room to bring forth an example. I was told the following year that there would be a line out the door of people with examples of having been discriminated against in public employment. There was not a single example anyone that felt that except that abstract fear that we’ve heard testified here today.

Speaking of discrimination, Virginia congressman Rep. Bob Goodlatte told NPR that while he is against bipartisan proposals allowing undocumented immigrants to earn a path to citizenship, he is all for the expansion of “a guest-worker program for immigrant-labor-dependent U.S. agriculture.”

In other words, a program that would make certain that foreign labor is available to do American agriculture’s “dirtiest jobs.”

Funny enough, former White House senior adviser David Plouffe dismissed the notion that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and his push for immigration reform would magically save the GOP from scaring away Latino voters for the foreseeable future.

“And by the way: the bigger problem they’ve got with Latinos isn’t immigration,” Plouffe said in the New York Times’ magazine article. “It’s their economic policies and health care. The group that supported the President’s health care bill the most? Latinos.”

Kansas’ contribution to the stupid slate is the Kansas House Education Committee introducing a bill that would mandate that teachers question the scientific basis of global warming.

Yes, Kansas Republicans want teachers to instill anti-intellectualism in its students.

And in the woman-hating portion of this post, Tennessee’s Rep. John Duncan says he’s not sure where he will support the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

He told the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

“Every bill is given a motherhood-and-apple-pie title,” Duncan said outside the House chamber. “But if you voted [based] on the title, you’d vote for every bill up here. If we’d all done that, the country would have crashed a long time ago.

Duncan went on to say he opposes domestic violence against women because “most men can handle [violence] a little better than a lot of women can.” His vote won’t be dictated by compassion for women and a disdain for forms of violence; instead, it will be dictated by cost.

Not to be outdone, gay Republicans have been once again blocked from the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In a new poll released by USA Today/Pew Research Thursday, only 22 percent of voters bothered to identify themselves as Republicans — a record low. I think I’ve done a good enough job explaining why that is.

Zoom, look at this GOP makeover go!

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer and blogger. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick

COLUMBIA, S.C.  — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a settlement divvying up the multi-million dollar estate of James Brown, saying a former attorney general didn’t follow the late soul singer’s wishes in putting together the deal.

Attorney General Henry McMaster brokered a settlement in 2009 that split Brown’s estate, giving nearly half to a charitable trust, a quarter to his widow Tomi Rae Hynie and leaving the rest to be split among his adult children.

But the justices ruled the deal ignored Brown’s wishes for most of his money to go to charity. The court ruled the Godfather of Soul was of sound mind when he made his will before dying of heart failure on Christmas Day 2006 at age 73.

The court sent the estate back to a lower court to be reconsidered.

The justices did agree with the lower court’s decision to remove Brown’s original trustees. Members of Brown’s family said they wanted them gone because the trustees mismanaged the estate until it was almost broke.

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The court said it had no idea what the estate was worth, giving an estimate of $5 million to over $100 million.

The justices harshly criticized McMaster, who stepped in to broker the settlement after the estate floundered in court for years. Chief Justice Jean Toal suggested if the settlement was allowed to stand, it could prevent people from leaving most of their estate to charity because of fear their wishes could easily be overturned.

The dispute came to the court after the ousted trustees sued.

“The compromise orchestrated by the AG in this case destroys the estate plan Brown had established in favor of an arrangement overseen virtually exclusively by the AG. The result is to take a large portion of Brown’s estate that Brown had designated for charity and to turn over these amounts to the family members and purported family members who were, under the plain terms of Brown’s will, given either limited devises or excluded,” Associate Justice John Kittredge wrote.

The fight over Brown’s estate even spilled over into what to do with his body. Family members fought over the remains for more than two months, leaving Brown, still inside his gold casket, sitting in cold storage in a funeral home. Brown was eventually buried in Beech Island, S.C., at the home of one of his daughters. The family wanted to turn the home into a shrine for Brown similar to Elvis Presley’s Graceland, but that idea has not gotten off the ground.

Photos: Black People On GQ Cover Start Gallery

There is some new information on the four Joliet, Ill., suspects who are facing first-degree murder charges for the strangulation deaths of two 22-year-old Black men who were allegedly robbed, killed, and partially dismembered in January. Police investigators have now learned that three of the accused murderers may have had sex on top of the corpses, reports the Joliet Patch.

SEE ALSO: Cop Charged With Not Investigating Racial Threats…Against Himself

The four young suspects, Alisa Massaro (pictured top right), 18; Bethany McKee (pictured bottom left), 18; Adam Landerman (pictured top left), 19 (his mother is a Joliet police sergeant); and Joshua Miner (pictured bottom right), 24, were charged with the gruesome killings of best friends Eric Glover (below pictured left), 22, and Terrence Rankin (below pictured right), 22, according to police.

The bodies of Glover and Rankins were discovered in Massaro’s home, and according to Joliet police, the two victims were allegedly lured to the home, robbed of their cash, strangled, and then partially dismembered.

Police were tipped off on January 10th about the two dead bodies in Massaro’s home. When officers arrived at the address on Hickory Street, they saw movement within the residence and proceeded to investigate.

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Police state that Landerman, Massaro, and Miner were just sitting around obliviously playing video games when police barged in.

The two dead victims were lying face down and had plastic bags tied around their heads when police found them. One of the man’s hands had been bound, while it was apparent that the other body’s hands had been tied up at one point but later released.

The fourth suspect, McKee, had left the home before police arrived but was picked up by authorities in nearby Kankakee.

So far, police have not released any information as to who actually committed the brutal murders or the motives for the killings.

According to the most-recently released information regarding the sex-on-corpses allegations, though, a police report states that Minor remembered his girlfriend, Massaro’s, desire to have “sex with a dead guy.”  So he allegedly asked the young woman if she would have intercourse with him on top of Glover’s and Rankins’ corpses.

When Massaro was asked to take part in the gruesome act, the police report states that she reportedly “made a smirk on her face” and refused.  The report then further elaborates that when officers questioned Massaro further about the bizarre plan, she admitted that she and Minor did have sexual relations on top of the dead bodies.

McKee allegedly told police that she believes Landerman also joined in on the necrophilic fetish as well.  The young woman allegedly told authorities it was Minor who concocted the idea for the bizarre sexual romp and blamed him for coming up with the idea to kill Glover and Rankin.

Police state that McKee provided them with the details on how the heinous sex romp had been carried out:

McKee related that during the night that Josh wanted to put the bodies together, which they did, side by side and they put something over the bodies, which was beige in color, and they were going to have sex on top of the bodies,” a report said. “McKee relates that she did not stick around for that ….

The police report went on to further state:

McKee relates that Alisa agreed with having sex on the bodies because she just wanted to go along with Josh and that they had been together a long time. McKee related during the whole interview that Josh was the one responsible for most of these actions and Adam had just followed along and had only known Josh for this past week but was more of the (follower) in this and Josh was more of the leader.

McKee, who has a 1-year-old child, also admitted to authorities that Minor “scared her.”

Minor has an extensive rap sheet: He previously pleaded guilty to unauthorized videotaping involving child pornography when he was 16. Three years ago, he was also convicted of a residential burglary and was ordered in to a state boot camp program.

The case is still being investigated by authorities.

SEE ALSO: The Onion’s Apology Was A Mistake, And I’d Say That If Quvenzhane Was My Daughter

WASHINGTON — Rosa Parks is famous for her 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Alabama to a white man, but there’s plenty about the rest of her experiences that she deliberately withheld from her family.

SEE ALSO: MLK Memorial Opens In Washington, D.C.

While Parks and her husband, Raymond, were childless, her brother, the late Sylvester McCauley, had 13 children. They decided Parks’ nieces and nephews didn’t need to know the horrible details surrounding her civil rights activism, said Rhea McCauley, Parks’ niece.

“They didn’t talk about the lynchings and the Jim Crow laws,” said McCauley, 61, of Orlando, Fla. “They didn’t talk about that stuff to us kids. Everyone wanted to forget about it and sweep it under the rug.”

Parks’ descendants now have a chance to be first-hand witnesses as their late matriarch makes more history, this time becoming the first black woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. The statue of Parks joins a bust of another black woman, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, which sits in the Capitol Visitors Center.

SEE ALSO: Top Moments In Black History: President Barack Obama Wins Re-Election

President Barack Obama, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner were among the dignitaries who took part in the unveiling Wednesday. McCauley said more than 50 of Parks’ relatives traveled to Washington for the ceremony.

This morning, we celebrate a seamstress, slight in stature but mighty in courage,” President Obama said. “She defied the odds, and she defied injustice.  She lived a life of activism, but also a life of dignity and grace.  And in a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America — and change the world.”

In a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in segregated Montgomery, Ala. She was arrested, touching off a bus boycott that stretched over a year.

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Jeanne Theoharis, author of the new biography “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” said Parks was very much a full-fledged civil rights activist, yet her contributions have not been treated like those of other movement leaders, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Rosa Parks is typically honored as a woman of courage, but that honor focuses on the one act she made on the bus on Dec. 5, 1955,” said Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College-City University of New York.

“That courage, that night was the product of decades of political work before that and continued … decades after” in Detroit, she said.

Parks died Oct. 24, 2005, at age 92. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor on Feb. 4, which would have been her 100th birthday.

Parks was raised by her mother and grandparents who taught her that part of being respected was to demand respect, said Theoharis, who spent six years researching and writing the Parks biography.

She was an educated woman who recalled seeing her grandfather sitting on the porch steps with a gun during the height of white violence against blacks in post-World War I Alabama.

After she married Raymond Parks, she joined him in his work in trying to help nine young black men, ages 12 to 19, who were accused of raping two white women in 1931. The nine were later convicted by an all-white jury in Scottsboro, Ala., part of a long legal odyssey for the so-called Scottsboro Boys.

In the 1940s, Parks joined the NAACP and was elected secretary of its Montgomery, Ala., branch, working with civil rights activist Edgar Nixon to fight barriers to voting for blacks and investigate sexual violence against women, Theoharis said.

Just five months before refusing to give up her seat, Parks attended Highlander Folk School, which trained community organizers on issues of poverty but had begun turning its attention to civil rights.

After the bus boycott, Parks and her husband lost their jobs and were threatened. They left for Detroit, where Parks was an activist against the war in Vietnam and worked on poverty, housing and racial justice issues, Theoharis said.

Theoharis said that while she considers the 9-foot-statue of Parks in the Capitol an “incredible honor” for Parks, “I worry about putting this history in the past when the actual Rosa Parks was working on and calling on us to continue to work on racial injustice.”

Parks has been honored previously in Washington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, both during the Clinton administration.

But McCauley said the Statuary Hall honor is different.

“The medal you could take it, put it on a mantel,” McCauley said. “But her being in the hall itself is permanent and children will be able to tour the (Capitol) and look up and see my aunt’s face.”

 

Slavehouse to the White House Start Gallery

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A candlelight vigil for Trayvon Martin just didn’t cut it for people waiting in Manhattan’s Union Square Tuesday afternoon. So commuters, tourists, and freedom fighters joined together to lead a march in uptown New York in memory of the teen whose murder galvanized the discussion of racial politics in this nation exactly one year ago.

RELATED: Trayvon Martin’s Memory Lives On One Year After Shooting Death
>
> “I sag my pants! I wear my hoodie! With my pants down low!” the crowd chanted as they headed up 6th Avenue in an impromptu salvo against George Zimmerman and the law enforcement system. The chant was a pointed reference to the neighborhood watchman following Martin in a gated Sanford, Fla., community because the youth looked “suspicious” in his hoodie. According to Zimmerman, he shot the teen after Martin knocked him to the ground, even though a 911 operator told him not to pursue the youth in the first place.
Watch a “Mic Check” during the rally here:

Back at Union Square, the crowd prepared for the evening vigil by connecting Zimmerman’s racist profiling with police profiling.

“Every time you hear about young people being murdered, either by police or by racist vigilantes, you have people who say, ‘Okay, maybe what happened there is wrong,’” said a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).

“But you know, these youth are no good. They can’t be about [anything].’ Well, I’m here to say, You’re wrong. Yes they can! Today in Harlem, 14-, 15-, and- 16-year-olds took to the streets and said, ‘We are all Trayvon Martin! We’re not just gonna do the Harlem Shake! We’re gonna fight back!’”

“Its’ a special day for all of us to acknowledge the ill injustices of police brutality,” said Omar Piel, a member of Occu-Evolve, a branch of Occupy Wall Street that promotes outreach and actions within the grassroots movement. “We’re not gonna take anymore of the lies and the misuse of power. We’re here to represent Trayvon Martin and the rest of the angels [who] died and [got] killed by the NYPD or any other top department.”

“We organized the first outreach effort [within OWS] to support a Trayvon Martin rally and vigil, and we organized outreach this year as well,” added Sumumba Sobukwe, another Occu-Evolve member. “This [vigil] would be the second one that we’ve organized outreach for. It’s another case of taking a young Black life, where our lives are still not as valued as other nationalities in this country.”

Even though Trayvon Martin dominated mass media for much of 2012, some at the vigil had only recently found out about the case. Manissa Montour, a Harlem transplant from Long Island, didn’t know who Martin was until the morning of the vigil.

“I’m really passionate about civil rights and I want to become a civil rights lawyer in the future, so I looked up what was going on in N.Y.C. today, and I saw it was Trayvon Martin’s anniversary and they had a vigil,” Montour said. “So I decided to spend my time and come out here.”

As it turned out, Montour’s friend was also unaware of the Martin case until Tuesday.

“My friend told me and then this was like the perfect cause,” said Dana Lewis, standing near Montour. “It’s something I always wanted to do, something I want to be a part of, so why not? It’s only right. It’s worth it.”

Shortly after Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, arrived to speak, a few famous faces lent their voices to the crowd.

“We are here because it is the one-year anniversary of the fierce murder of a young man who sought nothing more than to exercise his right to breathe than to exist without the unnecessary hatred left in his wake,” said political commentator Michael Eric Dyson.

“He [Trayvon] was the victim of a hate crime. The hate of his very existence. The stereotypes that operated in somebody’s head. What we say here is that we will not allow his memory to die or his life to be lived in vain. We are here because Trayvon is us and we are Trayvon.”

And Hollywood’s finest stopped by.

“I just wanna say it’s a personal thing with me,” said Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx (pictured right), who had a moment with Trayvon’s mother at the NACCP Image Awards. “I don’t wanna share everything that was said, but she said, ‘My baby’s gone,’” Foxx revealed.

“As I stood there with my daughter — she’s 19 now — I started to think like what would I feel like if she wasn’t there with me? So I made a commitment that night, also with the help of Harry Belafonte, who spoke so eloquently that night and said, ‘We have so much influence and so much money, but we don’t do anything with it.’ I want you to know that this is a personal thing for me.”

At 7:17 p.m., the time Trayvon was officially declared dead, the crowd lit their candles and held a moment of silence in his name. Trayvon’s parents led participants in chanting, “We remember Trayvon Martin!” before heading off in to the night. But even after Martin and Fulton left, the crowd stayed on to participate in an impromptu rally in Lower Manhattan against racism and police brutality, lead by the RCP, which was a fitting way to honor a young man whose only armor were Skittles and iced tea….

Trayvon Martin’s Life In Photos Start Gallery

RELATED: Trayvon Martin Would Have Been 18 Today

See more pictures from the Trayvon rally below:

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES — At least six fired police officers want their disciplinary cases reopened after the Los Angeles Police Department began reinvestigating the termination of a former officer who left a trail of violence to avenge his firing.

Scroll down for photo gallery

RELATED: Chris Dorner’s Uncensored Manifesto

Police Protective League President Tyler Izen wouldn’t provide details on the former officers who asked to have their cases revisited, but he said the decision by Chief Charlie Beck to reopen Christopher Dorner‘s case is unprecedented and “has left many of our members in absolute limbo.”

RELATED: Residents Plead With L.A. Cops On Signs, Shirts: I’m Not Chris Dorner! Don’t Shoot Me!

“If the department does investigations and they’re satisfied with those investigations, then what do they hope to learn from this review?” Izen said. “And if they are not satisfied with those investigations, why are they doing them without being satisfied in the first place?”

RELATED:Dorner Caught On Camera Buying Scuba Gear Two Days Before Murder

Beck reopened Dorner’s case and ordered a review of the LAPD disciplinary system after the black ex-cop’s online manifesto accused the department of racism and bias in his firing and vowed to get even with officers and their families.

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Dorner killed four people, including two police officers, in his rampage before he apparently committed suicide during a fiery shootout in a mountain cabin two weeks ago.

Beck has said the review is being conducted to ensure public confidence. The department has worked hard in recent years to overcome a bad image after multiple investigations into racism, corruption and abuse, including the Rampart Scandal and the 1991 beating of Rodney King.

RELATED: Online Video Game Portrays Dorner As Hero

The review of the allegations and overall disciplinary system will take months, Beck said at a Police Commission meeting on Tuesday. It will look at perceptions of fairness when dealing with race, gender and rank, and will involve input from officers and command staff.

Beck said the department will review other requests for review, but said many are old cases.

Dorner’s case brings up a significant issue about what to do when allegations of police misconduct are unfounded, said Commissioner Richard Drooyan. Dorner was dismissed for filing a false report alleging his training officer kicked a mentally disabled man.

“How do you make sure that you are punishing anyone who makes a false allegation or makes a false statement, while also at the same time not discouraging people from bringing potential misconduct to the attention of the department?” Drooyan asked.

Deputy Chief Bob Green, who oversees the South LA area, which is predominantly black and Latino, said the Dorner case has reopened “old wounds of trust” in the community.

About 100 people showed up at a community meeting last week and many spoke of negative experiences with police officers. Officers have reported disturbing public support for Dorner, including the message “Dorner lives” scrawled on walls.

About a dozen protesters at Tuesday’s meeting demanded an independent review of Dorner’s claims.

“We refuse to be able to continue to be duped that Bonnie can investigate Clyde,” said David Dang, an organizer for Occupy The Hood Los Angeles.

The incident has also led officers to question whether they’ve been punished by an unfair system.

“What we’re seeing is that a lot of folks (in the department) who have not been successful are looking for a rationale, now they go to the Dorner incident and say, `Why am I not getting promoted? Is there racism in the LAPD?’” Green said.

The union’s legal team is reviewing requests to reopen cases, Izen said. Those could add up. In 2012, there were 48 Board of Rights hearings and 30 resulted in termination, according to Officer Bruce Borihanh.

Chris Dorner Start Gallery

PHOTO CREDIT: Leeman Law Bio

Judge Lisa Traylor-Wolff (pictured), 52,  is accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 26-year-old prison inmate while in a visitation room at the Miami Correctional Facility, reports the International Business Times.

According to documents presented by the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications, Traylor-Wolff, who works part-time as a public defender, was having a “physically intimate relationship with a 26-year-old client” serving time on felony charges.

“The [inmate] was eventually convicted and sentenced to the Department of Correction,” the Supreme Court wrote in the statement. “Traylor-Wolff continued representing the client on appeal… The commission also alleges inappropriate conduct occurred when Traylor-Wolff and the client were in an attorney-client visitation room at the Miami Correctional Facility.”

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The commission also alleges that Traylor-Wolff, who is currently employed by Leeman Law Office, continued the sexual relationship throughout her client’s appeal process.

The Indianapolis Star has more:

“Only the five members of the Supreme Court can determine what, if any, allegations are true,” the statement says.Traylor-Wolff did not ask to be re-certified as a senior judge in 2013, according to the statement. It says she faces three charges of violating the Code of Judicial Conduct: Judge Traylor-Wolff violated rules of professional conduct which prohibits a lawyer from having sexual relations with a client; which prohibit a lawyer from representing a client if there is a significant risk that the representation will be materially limited by a personal interest of the lawyer; and which requires a judge to promote confidence in the integrity of the judiciary and to avoid impropriety.

The commission also alleges Traylor-Wolff violated a section of the code of conduct “which prohibits judges from engaging in activities that would appear to undermine the judge’s independence, integrity, or impartiality,” the statement said.

Traylor-Wolff, who has not yet commented, formerly served as president of the Pulaski County Bar Association and remains a member. She has 20 days to respond to the allegations before a public hearing is scheduled.

The inmate has not been named.

Top 10 Sex Scandals of the Decade Start Gallery