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 39.52.120Misuse 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 NationalPress 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 shallissue a proclamation to commemorate the
day
. Juneteenth Day may be observed bysuitable 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 theNational 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 isunaware 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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