Alaskan Blacks File Lawsuit Against Palin
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 10:44AM
Rev. Ajabu

John Lewis said that McCain and Palin are creating an atmospher that reminded him of the atmosphere created by George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. John Lewis feels that the atmosphere generated by Wallace with his venomous rhetoric contributed to the bombing of an Alabama church that left four (4) little Black girls dead. It appears that Blacks in Alaska are not too happy with the atmosphere that Governor Palin is generating in Alaska. Is this why McCain was so upset with John Lewis' remarks? The feelings of Blacks in Alaska are outlined in the Complaint below:

Complainant

Gregory Charles Royal

1929 18th Street NW PMB 1153

Washington, DC 20009

(202) 302-6703

OFFICE OF THE

ALASKA ATTORNEY GENERAL

Talis J. Colberg

P.O. Box 110300

Juneau, AK 99811-0300

(907) 465-2133

attorney.general@alaska.gov

October 14, 2008

COMPLAINT

RE: Governor Sarah Palin

Violations of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act

Non-Issue of Juneteenth Proclamation 2007

I, Gregory Charles Royal, a private citizen, file this

complaint to investigate actions by Governor Sarah Palin

pursuant to Alaska Statutes 39.52.310(b) for violations

under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act (AS 39.52.120

Misuse of Official Position- Paragraph (4) take or withhold

official action in order to affect a matter in which the

public officer has a personal or financial interest).

Specifically, Governor Palin withheld the official action

of issuing a proclamation in the year 2007, to commemorate

Juneteenth Day, as required by House Bill 100.

Governor Palin withheld this action consistent with her

personal interests, i.e., a demonstrative attitude,agenda

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and or ideology which promotes indifference toward African

American people and culture in the state of Alaska.

Furthermore, in an effort to quell protests over her

failure to issue the proclamation, overall race relations

and hiring practices, Governor Palin’s office may have

falsely claimed to the public in August 2008, that her

Press Secretary, Bill McAllister who is arguably visually

caucasian , was in fact, an African American or a person

who historically identifies himself as African American.

BACKGROUND

1. Complainant held a press conference at the National

Press Club on October 7, 2008 regarding now vicepresidential

candidate Sarah Palin's record on race

relations. At that time, several African Americans voiced

their experiences regarding the Governor, including the

complainant from an incident which occurred in 1990, and

Bishop Dave Thomas and Gwendolyn Alexander from the

African-American Historical Society of Alaska, and Reverend

Ronald V. Myers, Chairman, National Juneteenth Holiday

Campaign. Each commented on Governor Palin's actions

regarding the Juneteenth Holiday which was inacted in 2001

and states as follows:

HOUSE BILL NO. 100

"An Act establishing the third Saturday

of each June as Juneteenth Day." BE IT

ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE

OF ALASKA: * Section 1. AS 44.12 is

amended by adding a new section to

article 2 to read: Sec. 44.12.090.

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Juneteenth Day. Juneteenth Day is

established on the third

Saturday in June each year to

commemorate the abolition of slavery

throughout the United States and its

territories in 1865 and to remind all

Americans of the status and importance

of Americans of African descent as

American citizens. The governor shall

issue a proclamation to commemorate the

day. Juneteenth Day may be observed by

suitable observances and exercises by

civic groups and the public, and

citizens of the state are urged to

reflect on the suffering and sacrifice

endured by millions of early

African-Americans and to appreciate the

unique freedom and equality enjoyed by

all state citizens today, today."

[Emphasis Added]

2. In pertinent part Reverend Myers stated:

"As the chairman of the National Juneteenth Holiday

Campaign, Alaska became our sixth state to recognize

Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance

in 2001. And so, I started to inquire from our Juneteenth

director in Alaska, Gwendolyn Alexander, about what the

status was and coming to find out some concerns about, not

only her [Palin's] lack of support for Juneteenth and

acknowledgment of it, but the law that was written in 2001

to make Juneteenth an official state holiday says Alaska

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requires the governor to issue an annual proclamation

acknowledging Juneteenth in the state of Alaska. She didn't

even follow her judiciary responsibilities in 2007 and

issue a proclamation.......I wanted to acknowledge the

black community's contribution in Alaska building the

highway to Alaska, which was put together by 3,000 black

Army engineers, which played a significant role in terms of

World War II and the attack from Japan.....So blacks in

Alaska deserve a lot of respect. And I was quite concerned

about the lack of respect we were getting from Governor

Palin" SOURCE: CQ Transcriptions, LLC 2008

3. In pertinent part Bishop Thomas stated:

I'm Bishop Dave Thomas. I'm a part of the Juneteenth board

here in Anchorage, Alaska. We're just trying to let

everyone know in the nation about Governor Palin's noninvolvement

with the black community. On several occasions

we asked Governor Palin to come to Juneteenth festival

prior to it happening to come and be a part of Juneteenth

festival. And she on several accounts of us requesting that

did not come or did not send anyone to either be a part of

the festival. She also on several occasions here on the

part of the Black Ministerial Alliance -- we were trying to

meet with her to try and see where does the minorities

stand here in Anchorage as far as jobs, job opportunities

as coming on with this gas pipeline. And finally she met

with our president, Dr. Patterson. But through his meeting

with her, the meeting, what he says, did not go anywhere.

She is not a part of the black community. She is not

sensitive to the black community's needs here in Anchorage.

Like I said before, I am a part of the Juneteenth

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committee. She did not proclaim Juneteenth Day like she was

supposed to. And previous governors -- they always came to

the Juneteenth festival. They always sent a representative.

Governor Palin did not send anyone to even represent her

for this festival. So we're just trying to get this out to

the nation that she is not sensitive to the black community

here in Anchorage, Alaska.

QUESTION FROM NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER: How are you doing,

Bishop? I'm fine. I was just going to ask you about Bill --

how much you knew about Bill McAllister since he was an

anchor previously for about 30 years in Alaska at KCOO and

KCUU. Was there any record before he became Palin's press

secretary of him acknowledging that he was of mixed racial

heritage or had something to do with African-Americans?

THOMAS: None that I've heard of. I heard that he was on her

staff. But as far as him being involved in any type of

black leadership or any type of black festivals or any type

of black events that go on in the city, I don't have no

type of recollection that he was even a part of that. Now,

I know that he's on her staff. I believe he got on staff a

couple of months ago or when she started running. I know

nothing about Mr. McAllister, to tell you the truth,

nothing at all. SOURCE: CQ Transcriptions, LLC 2008

4. Complainant on Bill McAllister

Complainant did conduct additional inquiries into Bill

McAllister's record because of his statements which have

appeared on numerous websites as follows:

"....denies allegations that her

[Palin's] record of hiring and

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retaining racial minorities in

government posts compares poorly with

her predecessors.“I’m African-American

and I am a big rebuttal to those

charges,” said Palin Press Secretary

Bill McAllister, a former broadcast

journalist."

A colleague from KCOO who worked with McAllister laughed at

the assertion and emphatically stated that "the Bill

McAllister I knew who used to work here was white". Another

colleague at the St Cloud Times who at first stated that

she knew McAllister over several years would not confirm

that McAllister was an African American. Journalist Brady

Gervais who did a feature on McAllister for Twin Cities.com

in person and entitled "Palin's spokesman swept up in the

story" in September, 2008, did not recall that McAllister

was African American nor did he speak of any issues that

would infer such. There seem to be no published statements

of affiliations corroborating McAllister's claim of racial

identity, as set forth by the Governor's office.

5. Gwendolyn Alexander stated:

My name is Gwendolyn Alexander. And I'm the president of

the African-American Historical Society of Alaska. And we

do each year very community events. We are a non-profit

organization. Our main focus is the Juneteenth event. And

we have also added last year to this event because people

don't really know what Juneteenth is. We've added an

Emancipation Proclamation observance day where we do

broadcasts on radio and televisions and blogging site in

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the newspaper to identify that the Emancipation

Proclamation is the reason why we celebrate Juneteenth.

Well, my main concern is the fact that we do have the

celebration every year. It was put down we were

instrumental along with a few other community individuals

in instituting the H.B. 100, and that's the House bill 100,

which gives the third Saturday in June of every year as the

Juneteenth observance day. And as part of that bill that

was past there was a portion in there. It's called Senate

bill number 71 that dictates that the governor shall issue

a proclamation to commemorate the day.

In the past we have had the proclamation come to us from

the previous governors. The proclamation is sent to us by

the governors, beginning with Murkowski. And we take that

bill, and we publish it in our annual official Juneteenth

booklet. They also send a representative out to read the

bill. And if they can't -- if the governor could not make

it himself, then Lieutenant Governor Leman came out to read

the proclamation and give his thoughts on the event.

And I do have the previous booklet showing this fact. In

2007 we did not get a proclamation at all. We didn't get

any recognition from the governor's office in regards to

the Juneteenth event. In 2008 we sent requests to the

governor's office for the proclamation and to invite the

governor or a representative to come out to the event. We

did not get an answer to our fax.

There was a proclamation issued, I did see, in the

governor's Web site, that there was a proclamation that was

issued in June (2008). But it was not given to us. The

proclamation was supposed to be made public. If it's not

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given to us, then it should have been published in the

local newspaper, you know, on that day because it is

supposed to be something that is done by the governor on a

public basis. SOURCE: CQ Transcriptions, LLC 2008.

6. Further statements which were not present at the

National Press Club were included in an October, 2008

article by Linn Washington, Jr columnist for the

Philadelphia Tribune entitled "I Don't Mess With Black Men"

Palin's Racist Remark:

Eleanor Andrews, board chair of the

Anchorage Urban League:, said she is

unaware of any programs or outreach to

Alaska’s black community by Palin. “It’s

not a disengagement. It’s just no

connection. She does not have relations

with African Americans,” said Andrews, a

businesswoman and 44-year resident of

Alaska.

Attorney Rex Butler:

“People say that when [Palin] took over

as governor blacks lost jobs in state

government,” said attorney Rex Butler.

“It seems that the posture of her

administration with blacks is: Don’t

need them – Don’t worry about them.”

CONCLUSION

I request an investigation into the allegations as set

forth and further request that Governor Palin's failure to

issue the 2007 Juneteenth Proclamation treated as a

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separate matter and failing if such an act cannot be deemed

a violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

Respectfully submitted,

SIGNED ON FAXED COPY

Gregory Charles Royal

1929 18th Street NW PMB 1153

Washington, DC 20009

(202) 302-6703

Verification NOTARIZED AT VIRGINIA ON FAXED COPY

STATE OF ________________)

COUNTY OF _______________)

Subscribed and sworn this____day of____________2008

_______________________

Notary Public

My Appointment Expires

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