From 1946, the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West wrote a gardening column in the Observer. The columns were later collected into a set of books published between 1951 and 1958. Vita’s extensive gardening knowledge, her intense passion for her subject and her lively literary flair make these classics of garden writing essential for any serious gardener’s bookshelf. Volume 1 in a series of four anthologies reproducing the lively gardening columns by Vita Sackville-West. This volume covers 1946–1950.
Category Archives: ~ Culture & History
The 2009 Racial Justice Act … reminder
The North Carolina Racial Justice Act of 2009
Prohibited seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of race. The act identified types of evidence that might be considered by the court when considering whether race was a basis for seeking or imposing the death penalty and established a process by which relevant evidence might be used to establish that race was a significant factor in seeking or imposing the death penalty. The defendant had the burden of proving that race was a significant factor in seeking or imposing the death penalty, and the state was allowed to offer evidence to rebut the claims or evidence of the defendant. If race was found to be a significant factor in the imposition of the death penalty, the death sentence would automatically be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.[1]
North Carolina General Assembly Repeal Attempts [edit]
Under pressure from a group of 43 district attorneys, who expressed opposition to the act citing the clog of the court system in the state, the North Carolina Senate passed a bill by a 27-14 vote on November 28, 2011, that would have effectively repealed the Racial Justice Act.[2]
However, on December 14, Governor Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed the bill, saying that while she supports the death penalty, she felt it was “simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina.”[3] The state legislature did not have enough votes to override Perdue’s veto.
Major revision (2012)[edit]
The North Carolina General Assembly passed a major revision of the law in 2012 authored by Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake). The rewrite “severely restricts the use of statistics to only the county or judicial district where the crime occurred, instead of the entire state or region. It also says statistics alone are insufficient to prove bias, and that the race of the victim cannot be taken into account.” The bill was vetoed by Gov. Perdue, but this time, the legislature overrode the governor’s veto.[4]
Repeal[edit]
The North Carolina General Assembly voted to effectively repeal the entire law in 2013 and Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the repeal into law.[5]
Appeals under act[edit]
On April 20, 2012, in the first case appealed under the Racial Justice Act, the then-Senior Resident Superior Court Judge in Cumberland County (Fayetteville), Judge Greg Weeks, threw out the death sentence of Marcus Raymond Robinson, automatically commuting his sentence to life without parole. Robinson contended that when he was sentenced to death in 1994, prosecutors deliberately kept blacks off the jury. Robinson’s lawyers cited a study from Michigan State University College of Law indicating that prosecutors across North Carolina improperly used their peremptory challenges to systemically exclude qualified black jurors from jury service.[6][7][8]
References[edit]
- Jump up ^ Senate Bill 461, General Assembly of North Carolina, Session 2009
- Jump up ^ Bufkin, Sarah. “North Carolina General Assembly Votes To Repeal Landmark Racial Justice Law”. Think Progress: Justice. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- Jump up ^ Jarvis, Greg (2012-12-15). “Perdue veto saves death-row appeal law”. The News & Observer.
- Jump up ^ News & Observer
- Jump up ^ Charlotte Observer
- Jump up ^ “Judge: Racism played role in Cumberland County trial, death sentence converted in N.C.’s first Racial Justice Act case”. The Fayetteville Observer. April 20, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- Jump up ^ “Racial bias saves death row man”. BBC News (BBC). April 20, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- Jump up ^ Zucchino, David (April 20, 2012). “Death penalty vacated under North Carolina’s racial justice law”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
Resource …wiki
so, I do not know how accurate this is
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Selling Artifacts – In Memory
Talk about poppin’ tags.
Goodwill offers up African artifacts for sale
Posted on November 19, 2013 | By Scott Sunde
Goodwill African artifacts
antique-african-art
Some of the artifacts for sale
Goodwill in Tacoma is beginning to sell African artifacts valued at more than $11,000.
The 55 artifacts, from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, were used in tribal life and for tribal ceremonies. An anonymous donor left the 55 artifacts at the Port Townsend Goodwill store last month.
The items will be sold online at Shopgoodwill.com, a site used to produce the highest prices for items. The site uses competitive bidding to sell high-end fashion, jewelry, art and other items.
Go to the search portion of the site, pick Tacoma in the drop-down menu of sellers, then search for the items.
Goodwill wants the public to know about the online sales. Officials figure if people know valuable goods can fetch a good price, they might be more willing to donate.
“Many people hesitate to donate their high-end furniture, jewelry, clothing, art and collectibles because they assume their treasures will end up for $4 in our thrift stores,” said Dylan Lipert, manager of online sales, in a news release. “My job is to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
(The gallery above shows some of the artifacts, as well as other items that have or will be sold online.)
More than 140 Goodwill agencies provide items for sale online. In the past six years, Tacoma online operations have more than doubled in size and sales from $2.1 million in FY 2008 to $4.5 million in FY 2013.
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Century-old Native American artifact dropped off at Goodwill
By Molly Shen Published: Jan 30, 2013 at 4:01 PM PST Last Updated: Apr 26, 2013 at 12:40 PM PST
SEATTLE — Someone recently donated an old vest
SEATTLE — Someone recently donated an old vest to Goodwill, and while that could happen everyday, this one was unusual.
By old, we mean a century old. It’s a beaded Native American vest that’s so valuable, Goodwill couldn’t bear to sell it.
Instead, the non-profit decided to make its own donation. Now, curators from the Burke Museum are analyzing the vest.
It’s an exquisitely detailed piece from the early 1900s. Everything from the color of the beads to the geometric designs to the velvet lining is a clue pointing to the vest’s history.
“Whoever gave it to Goodwill probably knew more about it. They probably knew their grandfather got it while on a train ride through Glacier. That’s the kind of information we’d love to have,” said Robin Wright, Curator of Native American Art.
The vest was inside a trunk, donated to Goodwill in 2006. Someone recognized its value, and instead of going up for sale, the vest went into storage.
Katherine Boury of Goodwill explained, “We have to make the decision, what’s the best use of the donation. In this case because it’s of cultural significance, it seems it would be best to be accessible to everyone.”
Assessors pinpointed it as Native American work from the northern plains.
“There’s been some discussion with various experts about which particular tribe and we’re not able to say precisely which tribe it might be,” said Wright.
It might have been regalia for a pow wow, but at some point, it seems it was sold to a tourist.
Written on the lining – a price tag of $18 – for a vest that probably took several months to make. There is no price on the vest now, and while there are still questions about where it came from, there’s no question where it’s going.
The museum will keep the vest in its collection for the public to see and treasure.
Do you think you have an artifact in your home? Take up to three objects to the annual Artifact ID Day at the Burke on Feb. 9.
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Face it, says auctioneer, not every mask is sacred
theage.com.au – 10 months ago
Seventy masks revered as sacred by an American Indian tribe have been auctioned in Paris, despite a court attempt to stop the sale.
Hopi masks snapped up after French court allows auction
msnbc.msn.com – 10 months ago
The Hopi tribe of northeastern Arizona and supporters including the U.S. ambassador to France and actor Robert Redford had urged the Paris auction house to suspend the sale due to the masks’ cultural
Hopi masks auctioned in Paris amid outrage and legal objections
latimes.com – 10 months ago
The gavel came down on 70 sacred Hopi Indian masks at the Drouot auction house in Paris on Friday, generating $1.2 million for the owners and auctioneers – and anger and emotional cries from
wonder if there are updates on any of these stories and hopefully progress on stopping this from happening… return them to their place of origin
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Uptown (Summer of Soul Soundtrack – Live at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival)
Henrietta Lacks … a story kept quiet until Rebecca Skloot
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by, Rebecca Skloot
In April 2011, I watched a C-SPAN show interviewing the author of a book about Henrietta Lacks, her name: Rebecca Skloot.
Henrietta’s story starts August 1, 1920, and her birth and life ended sometime in the early fifties, 1951. This story has just come into the light of day and while I cried again because it’s sad, and unacceptable by some, it reminds us of how life is treated when you have no or less power than the “average Joe” which is code for being white.
After having several children and years and years of reports by “the Media”, publicity, and whatnot, Henrietta’s family seems to be the only ones who didn’t benefit from the story of this woman whose cells were used to create a cell line for medical research but got nothing in return. I don’t know when everyone else heard of this story, but Oprah and some associates decided to make a movie…hopefully, some or ALL of the revenue will be given to the family. It is a story that makes you gasp, gets you upset, or mad, it will make you cry and wonder how the science community got away with not paying Henrietta Lacks and or her family for her contribution. If I understood the interviewer, Henrietta’s family has recently gotten more PR about their Mother’s story, but it’s unclear if anyone paid money for all the stories, books, and or TV programs about her. It is a story that appears to be on the surface, one of unintentional theft, that became just that, and if you are willing to dig deeper you realize it is theft and a secret kept quiet for years.
It becomes apparent her cells are used by an immoral scientist who did not tell her or her family even after it was evident that the cells were rare, viable, unusual, and priceless…worth an astronomical amount in my opinion. The fact that they were used and what effects they all would eventually have on science today, in 2011, was not evident then, but those scientists probably had some idea. I understand that back then technology may not have been as advanced, but it did advance and still is and if the reports are correct, the science community gave Henrietta nothing to her or her family for the wonderful things those rare cells she had that changed the lives of so many. It happened in a time when minorities were treated very poorly and again, even if the reports state that standard procedure was this that, and or the other, the ’70s gave way to new ways to handle science technologies; it’s time to pay Henrietta Lacks and her family back.
First posted 4/13/11
Be a Seed for Change 
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