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Connected Classrooms: Freedom Rising at the Museum of African American History – Video

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Connected Classrooms: Freedom Rising at the Museum of African American History
Meet MAAH Educators and join us to explore the history of Boston #39;s vibrant black community in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Learn about our historic site...

By: Museum of African American History

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Connected Classrooms: Freedom Rising at the Museum of African American History - Video

Freedom Industries Calling: New Tape Reveals False Statements During Chemical Spill

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This you have to hear. The West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management released the audio tape of Freedom Industries reporting the Jan. 9 chemical spill that shut down access to public water for 300,000 people in the Charleston area.

The remarkably laconic late-morning phone conversation between a company representative and a hotline operator named Laverne reveals Freedom Industries minimizing the extent of the spill and making several flat-out misstatements about whats transpiring. Its safe to predict that this tape will become Exhibit A in pending civil litigation accusing Freedom of negligence and in any potential criminal charges related to the spill. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Charleston has said that it has launched a wide-ranging probe of the incident. Freedom Industries and its executives have denied any wrongdoing.

The caller from Freedom Industries, identifying himself as Bob Reynolds, says on the audio tape that the substance being released isnt toxic or hazardous and isnt escaping into the Elk River. A containment wall has blocked the spill from spreading, he adds. Both statements were incorrect.

Other company officials and state environmental regulators later confirmed that the coal-processing chemical MCHM does cause harm to humans. Later on Jan. 9, residents of the region were ordered not to drink, bathe, or cook with tap water because 10,000 gallons of MCHM swiftly entered the Elk River. From there it flowed into the public water-system intake a mile and a half downstream from the Freedom Industries tank farm on the banks of the Elk.

Moreover, state Department of Environmental Protection inspectors, who had already arrived at the Freedom site by the time Reynolds called the spill hotline, later said they quickly discovered a 4-foot-wide stream of MCHM seeping through a cracked containment wall and into the adjacent river. In a subsequent court hearing, evidence was introduced showing that before the spill, Freedoms management had set aside $1 million to repair the wall but the work hadnt been started.

One of the more disturbing moments on the audio tape occurs when Laverne asks Reynolds for the full name of the chemical thats escaping. He has to look it up. Its 4-methylcyclohexane methanol. Laverne and Bob share a casual chuckle over their mutual ignorance. Hahaha: That feeling is the hair on the back of your neck standing up.

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Freedom Industries Calling: New Tape Reveals False Statements During Chemical Spill

Lawsuits over leak continue despite Freedom bankruptcy

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Although Freedom Industries has sought protection in bankruptcy court, that hasn't stopped residents and business owners from filing lawsuits over the company's Jan. 9 chemical leak into the Elk River.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Although Freedom Industries has sought protection in bankruptcy court, that hasn't stopped residents and business owners from filing lawsuits over the company's Jan. 9 chemical leak into the Elk River.

None of the new lawsuits, however, names Freedom Industries as a defendant. The company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Jan. 18 means that all lawsuits against the company are put on hold.

About 30 lawsuits had been filed before the bankruptcy against Freedom since the company discovered "Crude MCHM" had leaked into the Elk River from one of its storage tanks and caused a water-use ban for 300,000 West Virginians. About a week later, Freedom employees disclosed that another chemical, "PPH," was also in the tank that leaked.

Eastman Chemical Company, which produces MCHM, and The Dow Chemical Company, maker of PPH, are both named as defendants in a lawsuit filed last week by more than a dozen Kanawha County residents.

That lawsuit, which asks to be granted class-action status, also names Gary Southern, Freedom's president; the company's affiliate, Etowah River Terminal; its parent company, Chemstream Holdings; and Chemstream's owner, J. Clifford Forrest.

West Virginia American Water Company and its parent company American Water Works are also named in that suit filed by attorneys Timothy Koontz and Mark Underwood.

In two other lawsuits, West Virginia American Water is named as the sole defendant. Both were filed by attorneys Marvin Masters and Robert Berthold Jr.

In documents filed in Freedom's bankruptcy case, West Virginia American Water says it has been sued more than 20 times over Freedom's chemical leak. Because of that, the water company says, it is Freedom's "largest single creditor" in the bankruptcy case.

None of the new lawsuits, however, names Freedom Industries as a defendant. The company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Jan. 18 means that all lawsuits against the company are put on hold.

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Lawsuits over leak continue despite Freedom bankruptcy

FREEDOM TOWNSHIP: Trivia Night set for Saturday

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All community members are invited to show off their knowledge of seemingly

useless facts on Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Foundations Fall Trivia Night.

The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Freedom Township Hall, 11508 Pleasant Lake Road. Doors open 7 p.m.

Gather a group of 8-10 of your smartest, most fun, family and/or friends (Adults

only, please) and join us for a night of Trivia Fun at the Freedom Township Hall.

Knowledge of trivia is NOT required (and usually doesnt help anyway!).

Dont have a group of 8-10? Let us know how many you do have and well put you

with an ad hoc group. Its a great way to meet people and learn things likeHow

many minutes of actual plays are there in an average, 3-hour NFL broadcast?

(Hint Check out the Wall Street Journal online). Local trivia, sports, Continued...

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FREEDOM TOWNSHIP: Trivia Night set for Saturday

Freedom Summer of 1964 was mission in hostile territory

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For many young civil rights workers in 1964, there was no better place than Mississippi to challenge a system that kept blacks voiceless and disenfranchised.

The state had one of the largest black populations in the South, yet fewer than 5% of blacks there were registered to vote, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. In some counties, not a single black person was registered.

"Mississippi was the last bastion of apartheid," recalled Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, who as a young man was the first chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). "Mississippi was famous for the exploitation and the destruction of black people."

"If you wanted to change the face of the nation, you started where the problems were the worst," said Barry, 77, now a city councilman in Washington. "You crack that, you can crack anything. That was our philosophy. We were fearless. We were the revolutionary storm troopers."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi, when Barry and other civil rights workers took shelter with sympathetic residents in small towns and rural counties while helping blacks register to vote.

It was a dangerous mission, in a state where whites vehemently and violently opposed change. Murders, lynchings and beatings were used to intimidate blacks and keep in place segregation in schools and other public places. Student activists, led by SNCC, the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality, were determined to challenge voter registration requirements - such as poll taxes and literacy tests - intended to prevent blacks from voting.

"It's a moment in history where all these people came from all across the country: lawyers, doctors, teachers, students, activists, historians," said Robert Moses, 79, who headed SNCC's Mississippi operation and now runs the Algebra Project, a non-profit education program in Massachusetts. "They just converge for a brief moment in time and make something happen that nobody thought could happen."

'A major national event'

Freedom Summer was a key turning point in the civil rights movement and helped lead to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

"It was a major national event, and it had an impact on shaping public opinion on civil rights nationally," said David Bositis, a senior analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Freedom Summer was important because it brought to the North what was going on in Mississippi."

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Freedom Summer of 1964 was mission in hostile territory

VSU Trojan Explosion Marching Band Halftime performance at FREEDOM CLASSIC BOTB 2014 – Video

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VSU Trojan Explosion Marching Band Halftime performance at FREEDOM CLASSIC BOTB 2014
During the MLK weekend in Richmond, VA, local rivals Virginia State and Virginia Union Universities went head to head in basketball, cheerleaders and bands. ...

By: Gentleman1911

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VSU Trojan Explosion Marching Band Halftime performance at FREEDOM CLASSIC BOTB 2014 - Video


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