Obama has stiffed hard hats who built his colossus albatross on nineteen acres of Chicago park. Contractors are now calmoring for their hard earned dough. These contractors sunk their blood, sweat and tears into the gargantum project, only to find out they weren’t going to get paid for a job well done.

Where are you Obama? Are you skipping out on the Brothers from the Hood? Cough up the money, cheapskate. Are you the typical low life who skips town to the Vineyard? Where is the MONEY?

Subcontractors say they’re owed millions, face financial ruin, after helping build Obama Presidential Center

Adamson Plumbing owner Mike Owen says his company is owed nearly $4M on the Chicago project

 By Michael Dorgan Fox News

Published June 17, 2026 3:32pm EDT

CHICAGO — The Obama Presidential Center was billed as a lasting legacy to former President Barack Obama, and its construction was touted as an ambitious model built with aggressive goals for minority-owned and local businesses.

But now, some of the very subcontractors who helped build the 19.3-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side say they are facing financial ruin as they race to recover millions of dollars they claim remain unpaid ahead of the center’s grand opening Friday. Overall construction costs were reported to be $830 million in 2021, and have likely climbed past the $1 billion mark.

A Fox News Digital investigation identified multiple construction firms claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions. The allegations cut against one of the Center’s defining goals: helping minority-owned businesses and local contractors grow through one of Chicago’s highest-profile construction projects. Several of the complaints reviewed by Fox News Digital come from firms that were supposed to benefit from that mission.

Among them is Adamson Plumbing, whose owner Mike Owen says is nearly $4 million in the red after years of work on the project.

“That is a hole that no subcontractor, small business can survive,” Owen said.

WATCH: Black subcontractors at Obama Presidential Center still seeking payment as Juneteenth opening nears, advocate says

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OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER’S $470M SAFETY NET UNDER SCRUTINY AS SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS

Subcontractor owners interviewed by Fox News Digital described what they characterized as a chaotic work environment marked by repeated design changes, rework, scheduling disruptions, extensive oversight and years-long compensation disputes that still remain unresolved.

Several also described what they viewed as a wall of silence surrounding the project, with some declining to speak publicly or requesting anonymity because of confidentiality agreements or fears of professional retaliation.

The allegations emerge days after a Fox News Digital investigation reported that the Obama Foundation’s reserve fund — originally promoted as a $470 million financial safeguard intended to help protect taxpayers if the project encountered financial trouble — remains funded at roughly $1 million.

Nearly $4 million in the red

Standing outside the center on a gloomy Friday afternoon, Owen flipped through spreadsheets and financial records that he said documented millions of dollars in losses tied to the project.

Owen said the project stretched on for years longer than anticipated, forcing his company to absorb millions of dollars in labor and overhead costs as work demands changed and expanded.

He said the losses have drained the company’s reserves, created uncertainty for employees and could ultimately force layoffs. Owen also said the years-long effort to recover what he believes is money owed has taken a significant toll on his mental health.

“I haven’t had eight hours or six hours sleep in over a year,” Owen said. “I’m cooked emotionally. I feel like an aluminum can that’s been thrown in front of a steamroller. We’re crushed. And I have to fight for my company and for my people.”

African American Contractors Association President Omar Shareef (left) and Adamson Plumbing President and Owner Mike Owen (right) are shown alongside the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Both men raised concerns about payment disputes involving contractors and subcontractors who worked on the project. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital; Fox Flight Team)

OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER JOB LISTINGS PUSH ‘ANTI-RACISM’ PLEDGE AHEAD OF OPENING

As the center prepares for a star-studded pre-opening celebration on Thursday featuring performers including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and John Legend, Owen said it has been difficult to watch the buildup and soft-opening events take shape over the past few weeks while his company struggles financially.

“It was kind of hard seeing some local and national celebrities high-fiving and back-slapping here about the work that’s been done,” Owen said. “The backdrop of a coming celebration is kind of hard to swallow for me and for some of my peers at the moment.”

Owen, whose company is not minority-owned, said he decided to speak publicly only after months of failed efforts to recover losses he attributes to the project.

“As for me and my company, I’m at the end of my rope and I see no other choice than to have to tell my story,” Owen said. “This is not to embarrass anybody, but this is just to make sure that the truth gets told out here of what has happened to the companies that poured their heart and soul into getting this job complete and operational.”

He said unnecessary rework, delays and more than 100 change-order requests left his company absorbing millions of dollars in additional costs.

Mike Owen, president and owner of Adamson Plumbing, reviews documents outside the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER SLAMMED FOR PROMOTING ‘FAR-LEFT’ AGENDA ON PUBLIC LAND

The Obama Foundation, Obama’s private nonprofit organization that oversees the construction, told Fox News Digital that it paid Lakeside Alliance as the project’s construction manager and that Lakeside was responsible for hiring, managing and paying subcontractors working on the center.

The Obama Foundation also said it has no outstanding disputed charges with Lakeside Alliance — a joint venture involving multiple construction companies — and no contractural relationship with Lakeside’s subcontractors.

Lakeside Alliance said projects of this scale are inherently complex and that outstanding project matters often continue long after construction ends. The alliance said approximately 475 contractors worked on the project, generating significant opportunities for local tradespeople and businesses, and that it remains committed to working through outstanding matters to successfully close out the project.

Neither Lakeside Alliance nor the Obama Foundation directly disputed allegations from some subcontractors that they incurred losses while working on the project.

Fears of speaking out

Advocates for Black subcontractor firms say those companies have been muzzled by a non-disclosure agreement and a reluctance to speak publicly because of the prestige surrounding the project in Obama’s adopted hometown, a Democratic stronghold, as well as concerns that speaking out could jeopardize payments.

“They are scared to death about talking about it,” Omar Shareef, the president of the African American Contractors Association, told Fox News Digital outside the center on a recent Saturday. The group advocates for Black-owned construction businesses and was founded by Shareef in 1989.

“I’ve never seen this happen since I’ve been in business,” Shareef said. “The building does look nice, but the fact doesn’t matter that they’re not paying our damn contractors.”

Fox News Digital independently interviewed several contractors who described similar concerns.

Construction equipment is seen outside the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago ahead of the campus opening. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER’S $470M SAFETY NET UNDER SCRUTINY AS SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS

Shareef said several Black subcontractor owners began privately approaching him about six months ago, claiming significant losses tied directly to the project. The concerns are particularly notable, he said, because the project was publicly promoted as an opportunity for minority-owned businesses and local workers.

“The promise was that this project was going to uplift minority contractors and uplift the community,” Shareef said. “What sense is celebrating Juneteenth if our Black contractors are not getting their money?”

“Some of the people have put their mortgages up, they’re going to lose their bonding… they are going to lose their relationship with their supplier as well as their banker.”

Shareef said that being in the red not only puts them at financial risk, but it also makes it harder for them to secure future projects. Shareef said his group plans on staging a protest outside the center on Thursday at 10 a.m. CT.

“That’s a bad signal to put out the fact that seven to eight to maybe 10 of our contractors in our community are going to be eliminated from doing business because of the debt that they incurred on this particular project,” he said. “If they would have known it was a Trojan horse or a Pandora’s box, I don’t know if they would have raced as much as they did to be a part of it.”

Fox News Digital has not independently corroborated the claim that these subcontractors will be forced out of business as a result of their work on the Obama Presidential Center project.

Local companies on the brink

One minority-owned subcontractor owner told Fox News Digital his company was up to $2.5 million in the red but declined to speak publicly, citing non-disclosure agreements and ongoing efforts to resolve disputes. The owner said the contract for the job was originally expected to last 24 months but ultimately stretched to about five years.

Fox News Digital was unable to independently verify the company’s claimed losses. Shareef said the owner told him the same story but the owner wouldn’t provide Shareef with documents due to the NDA.

The largest publicly known dispute tied to the project involved II in One Concrete, a Black-owned firm that was part of the Concrete Collective — a joint venture that also included Trice Construction and W.E. O’Neil Construction — that was responsible for major structural concrete work across the campus.

The Concrete Collective filed claims exceeding $40 million, alleging it incurred substantial additional costs while working on the Center. The dispute later became entangled with a widely publicized racial racial discrimination lawsuit that brought national attention to diversity, equity and inclusion issues surrounding the project.

McGee alleged the project’s structural engineer unfairly blamed his company for delays and cost overruns and that the criticism contributed to the rejection of Concrete Collective’s compensation claims.

Defendants denied wrongdoing and disputed the allegations, arguing that portions of the concrete work had to be repaired or replaced because of cracking and other deficiencies. The owner of II in One Concrete declined to comment for this story. The case docket reflects that the case remains pending.

BUREAUCRATS HIDE TRUE PRICE OF OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER AS TAXPAYERS HIT WITH INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

A worker tidies landscaping outside the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago ahead of the facility’s opening. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

Court records also show that at least two minority-owned subcontractors that worked on the project later sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to documents viewed by Fox News Digital. The filings do not establish that the Obama Presidential Center caused those financial difficulties.

Glass Management Services, which supplied glass for the project, filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2024 and later told the bankruptcy court it was preparing litigation related to the Obama Presidential Center that it said could yield millions of dollars in damages. Fox News Digital is not aware that such litigation has been filed and the allegations have not been tested in court. Its owner declined to speak.

Vision Painting & Decorating Services, another subcontractor that worked on the project, also filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2024 while listing the Obama Presidential Center contract in its bankruptcy schedules. Court filings reviewed by Fox News Digital do not state whether the company viewed the project as contributing to its financial difficulties. Fox News Digital was unable to get in touch with its owner.

Another subcontractor owner who worked on the project, told Fox News Digital that the job caused significant financial strain on his company too and he described the experience as a “nightmare” and one of the most difficult projects he had encountered.

He filed a mechanic’s lien for around $145,000, documents show, which was eventually paid to him, but he said his company was still down $200,000 for the project. A mechanic’s lien is a legal tool that companies file when they say they are owed money for construction work they completed.

“Literally, I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and it was the worst-run job I’ve ever been on,” the subcontractor owner said.

A view of the Obama Presidential Center from a nearby roadway in Chicago. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

COURTESY OF TIME MAGAZINE

1 — The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this MOU, declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon and other provisions of this paragraph.

2 — The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.

3 — The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran commit to negotiating and achieving the final deal in maximum 60 days, expendable with mutual consent.

4 — Immediately upon the signing of this MOU, the United States of America will begin the removal of its naval blockade and any disturbances or impediments against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and will fully end the naval blockade within 30 days. During this period, the traffic of vessels will be in proportion to the numbers of pre-war traffic being restored by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States of America further undertakes to remove its forces from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran within 30 days after the final deal.

5 — Upon the signing of this MOU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa. The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start, and considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles and demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be instated within 30 days. The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussion with other Persian Gulf littoral states in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz.

6 — The United States of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least USD $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The mechanism for the implementation of this plan will be finalized as part of a final deal within 60 days. All required licenses, waivers, and permissions needed for the relevant financial transactions will be granted by the United States of America.

7 — The United States of America undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, and all unilateral U.S. sanctions—primary and secondary—in an agreed upon schedule as part of the final deal. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America acknowledge the critical importance of the sanctions termination issue above mentioned and expressed their intentions to immediately address these issues in the negotiations in order to achieve mutual agreement on them.

8 — The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons. The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpile enriched material pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon in accordance with the schedule mentioned in paragraph seven, with the minimum methodology to be down blending on site under the supervision of the IAEA. The two parties also agreed to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters related to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear needs, based on a satisfactory framework being agreed upon in the final deal. The final deal will confirm the provisions of this paragraph. The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran acknowledged the critical importance of the nuclear issues above mentioned and expressed their intention to immediately address these issues in the negotiations in order to achieve mutual agreement on them.

9 — Pending the final deal, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran agree to maintain the status quo. The Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program and the United States of America will not impose any new sanctions and will not deploy additional forces in the region.

10 — The United States of America undertakes that immediately upon the signing of this MOU and until the termination of sanctions, the U.S. Department of Treasury will issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives, and all associated services, including banking transactions, insurances, transportation, etc.

11 — The United States of America undertakes to make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Upon the implementation of the MOU, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran will mutually agree on the procedures related to the release of these funds during the negotiations. Such funds, whether retained in the original account or transferred, shall be made fully usable for payment to any ultimate beneficiary designated by the central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States of America undertakes to issue all the necessary licenses and authorizations accordingly.

12 — The United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran agree that an executive mechanism will be established to monitor the successful implementation of this MOU and the future compliance of the final deal.

13 — After signing this MOU, and subject to the beginning of the implementation of paragraphs 1, 4, 5, 10, and 11 of this MOU, and the continuing implementation of these measures, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran will start negotiations regarding the final deal exclusively on the other paragraphs.

14 — The final deal will be endorsed by a binding United Nations Security Council resolution.

June 19, 2021 marks the 156th anniversary of the last African American slaves being freed in Texas. This year, President Biden signed into law Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, S. 475, creating a federal holiday to commemorate Juneteenth. This is the first federal holiday approved since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. This, however was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect January, 1863. This day, the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, has become a day for African Americans to celebrate not only their freedom, but their history, culture and achievements.

Although this was a day of celebration for the enslaved Blacks, Americans of all stripes celebrate the day. To have one man be enslaved by another is against the law of God.

HATE had no enemies in the two cities where massacres occurred.

In 2 U.S. cities haunted by race massacres, facing the past is painful and divisive

December 11, 20227:00 AM ET

By 

Scott Neuman

A dozen Black men were convicted of murder by all-white juries in connection with the 1919 massacre in Elaine, Ark. Above, defendants S.A. Jones, Ed Hicks, Frank Hicks, Frank Moore, J.C. Knox, Ed Coleman and Paul Hall with their attorney at the state penitentiary in Little Rock in 1925 after the Supreme Court overturned their convictions.

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System

Shortly after going to work for the Tulsa Historical Society in 2001, Michelle Place recalls historian Richard Warner hefting a large cardboard box atop her desk. “This is the most important collection that the Tulsa Historical Society has,” he told her. “Guard it with your life.”

Warner had co-authored the final report of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission, created by the Oklahoma Legislature to present a historical accounting of the infamous massacre that left upward of 300 African Americans dead and resulted in the destruction of “Black Wall Street,” in the city’s prosperous Greenwood enclave. The box contained all of the research the commission had collected.

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Place gravitated toward the photographs inside but couldn’t stomach what she saw. “It was so horrific,” she says. “Burned bodies and dead in the streets.”

Just a few weeks earlier, Place had known nothing about the death and destruction depicted in those black and white images. It was only after fielding a call from an overseas journalist wanting to speak with someone about “the Tulsa race riot” that a colleague clued her in. “‘You don’t know, do you?'” she remembers the co-worker asking.

In this 1921 image provided by the Library of Congress, smoke billows over Tulsa, Okla., following the killing of hundreds of people in “Black Wall Street” in the city’s prosperous Greenwood enclave.

Alvin C. Krupnick Co./Library of Congress/AP

Place, now the historical society’s executive director, moved to Tulsa in 1987 but grew up in Little Rock, a little more than 100 miles northwest of Elaine, a tiny Arkansas Delta town with a similarly troubled past.

The two Southern cities, however, could hardly be more different in the way they have dealt with their history. The Tulsa commission, after researching the events of May 31-June 1, 1921, offered recommendations that have served as a blueprint for how to move toward acknowledgment, healing and even restitution. Although some of its recommendations remain controversial and unresolved, such as payments to survivors and descendants, others — including scholarships for descendants of those who lost businesses and property in the massacre — have moved forward, albeit haltingly.

Soldiers of the 57th Infantry of the 3rd Division from Camp Pike in Little Rock carry rifles as they enter a guardhouse and hospital after being dispatched to Elaine in 1919.

Library of Congress

In Elaine, the reckoning has come much more slowly. Most historical accounts of the massacre there, including contemporaneous reporting by the prominent African American journalist Ida B. Wells, relate that Black sharecroppers were meeting at a church in a place called Hoop Spur on the town’s outskirts. The farmers were organizing for a larger portion of the profits from their cotton.

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Late on the night of Sept. 30, 1919, a group of local white men surrounded the church. Although it isn’t clear who fired first, a shot from within the church claimed the first victim — a white man.

The following day, a rampage ensued, with whites targeting Black farmers and their families. The governor dispatched soldiers to put down the violence, which was characterized by white landowners as an “insurrection.”

Arkansas Gov. Charles Brough addresses a crowd in front of Elaine Mercantile in Elaine, Ark., after the Elaine massacre, circa 1919.

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System

The number of those killed in Elaine is disputed, but the generally accepted range is between 100 and 240 Black people and five white people. Figures from some sources range much higher.

Along with Tulsa, it is regarded as one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. But while the Tulsa massacre has become well known in recent years, the events of 1919 in Arkansas have received little attention.

To be sure, Tulsa is a growing city of more than 400,000 people. Elaine’s population has been falling since the 1970s and it is struggling to hold on to its 500 or so residents. Like other cities haunted by long-ignored racial violence, Elaine, unlike Tulsa, is still far off a path to reconciliation or to resolving thorny questions of how to properly atone for the sins of the past and do right by the descendants of victims.

At a time of renewed national focus on racial justice, experts say these conversations are more important than ever.

The rocky path to reconciliation

The first step is acknowledgment, and simply admitting that horrible events took place moves in the right direction, says Marcus Anthony Hunter, a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“What happens a lot in terms of the history of violence against Black communities is that people treat it like it’s false,” Hunter says. “It creates a condition where Black people are led to believe that they’re making up stuff.”

But getting to acknowledgment, let alone reconciliation, is not an easy task. It is frequently time-consuming, painful and divisive. Tulsa is considered a model by some for how to do it.

The Tulsa Race Massacre

Survivors Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Share Eyewitness Accounts

In addition to the commission and scholarships, Oklahoma has mandated that its schools teach the massacre. The Tulsa Historical Society’s Place is proudest that thousands of documents, photos and other resources about the massacre have been made available online. Not only does it preserve and protect the artifacts, but anyone wanting to do research can access them, she says.

Still, she admits it took years before the Tulsa commission’s recommendations were acted on. “By 2012, certainly there were Tulsans, both Black and white, who recognized that the 100th anniversary [was] quickly approaching,” she says. “Many of us felt that the first thing that we had to do was to educate our community about what had happened and [about] this injustice,” she says.

Even so, a lawsuit against Tulsa by survivors of the massacre — all more than 100 years old now — is ongoing. Among other things, it seeks financial restitution and the redistribution of land to the families of Greenwood’s original landowners, a move that the commission called for more than 20 years ago.

Elaine remains split over what happened

Elaine’s efforts to deal with its past have been complicated by a historical narrative that remains unsettled — with the town at odds over how the massacre started and who was involved. The one thing that both sides agree on is that a decades-long conspiracy of silence reinforced by fear kept perpetrators and survivors from talking.

Poet, essayist and translator J. Chester Johnson says to some, the destruction of Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” is just a more compelling narrative than Elaine’s “dirt poor sharecroppers along the Mississippi River Delta.”

“There are TV programs on Tulsa. There have been movies,” he says. “There’s a difference in terms of attention. And I hate that.”

Johnson, 78, grew up in southeast Arkansas but now lives in New York. His grandfather, who was a Ku Klux Klan member, participated in the 1919 massacre, and the family’s disquieting ties to the events prompted him to write Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation, published in 2020.

As he was researching the book, he says, some acquaintances wondered aloud why he wanted to write it. A close friend summed it up, telling him “the more you scratch an event like Elaine, the more the scab of racism bleeds.”

The older generation in town always knew what happened, but few were willing to relinquish the secret, says James White, a descendant of one of the massacre victims.

“White people knew. Black people knew about it, too,” says White, director of the Elaine Legacy Center, which has collected oral histories related to the events of 1919.

But the generation that went through those events wasn’t always eager to pass that knowledge along. Lisa Hicks-Gilbert, 54, grew up in Elaine and was unaware of the massacre until around 2008, when she encountered one of the few books on the subject, Blood in their Eyes, by Grif Stockley.

“Over the years, I started talking with my grandmother and I asked her first and she confirmed that it indeed had happened,” she says.

Hicks-Gilbert later discovered that she is related to brothers Frank and Ed Hicks, two of a dozen Black men known as the “Elaine Twelve,” who were swiftly convicted of murder by all-white juries and sentenced to death in connection with the massacre. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark 1923 case Moore v. Dempsey, overturned what the justices said were verdicts tainted by “mob domination” that deprived the men of due process.

The 12 Elaine defendants in Helena, Ark., circa 1919.

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System

In all, 122 African American men were convicted and jailed in connection with the violence. No whites ever faced justice.

Despite their shared legacy, White and Hicks-Gilbert represent competing camps among descendants.

Hicks-Gilbert believes the generally accepted view that the massacre involved Black sharecroppers trying to organize, but White thinks his own family’s story, along with the oral histories the Elaine Legacy Center has helped collect, support a different version of events — mainly that most of the Black farmers were landowners themselves, not just sharecroppers. The disagreement cuts to the heart of reparations, the most controversial issue for both Elaine and Tulsa.

The disagreement among descendants in Elaine helped tank a dialogue with Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office about how to mark the 2019 centenary, according to Kwami Abdul-Bey, a legal advocate who is drafting legislation for Arkansas that draws on Oklahoma’s approach to the Tulsa massacre.

“No bodies have been found”

In early 2019, as the centenary of the Elaine massacre approached, Abdul-Bey led a group that arranged a sit-down with Hutchinson. They wanted to discuss legislation to clear a path for posthumous exonerations for the Elaine Twelve and scores of other Black men arrested and jailed on lesser charges connected to the massacre. Among other things, the bill would also have set up a Tulsa-style commission and mandated a K-12 curriculum on the history of the massacre.

That first meeting showed promise, Abdul-Bey says, but a subsequent one fell apart when the question of restitution came up. Some of those who attended the second meeting dispute that characterization of events.

After that, he says, emails to Hutchinson’s office on the subject went unanswered. “We’ve communicated with the governor’s office on other topics, but they will not discuss anything dealing with Elaine.”

The proposed legislation died in committee last year.

On the 100th anniversary, a memorial was dedicated in Helena, a town of 10,000 people located 30 minutes north of Elaine. Organizers thought the larger town would attract more visitors. The site of the memorial, too, proved a point of contention, with White and others adamant that it should have been located in Elaine.

The governor was out of the country for the dedication ceremony and his office did not send a representative, locals say. Hutchinson’s office did not respond to NPR’s multiple emails for comment.

Abdul-Bey is now busy honing a narrower version of the bill, focused solely on exonerations, in the hope that Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders will turn the page and reengage on Elaine.

A construction crew works on the monument honoring victims of the Elaine massacre in Helena, Ark., on June 15, 2019.

Noreen Nasir/AP

Aside from the memorial in nearby Helena, there are a few other signs of progress in Elaine, where a museum dedicated to the massacre is scheduled to open soon. Meanwhile, Hicks-Gilbert this past week won a runoff to become the next mayor of Elaine — she will be the first African American and the first female in the town’s history to hold the top job.

But other issues remain a sticking point. Tulsa has pursued identification of victims, exhuming bodies for DNA testing with the aim of determining whether they are linked to the massacre. In Elaine, only the bodies of the five white people who died in the massacre were ever recovered. The hundreds of African Americans who were killed are thought to have been buried in mass graves or simply dumped in swamps, or in the river. None have ever been recovered.

The Tulsa Race Massacre

21 more unmarked graves are discovered in the Tulsa Race Massacre investigation

“Where this happened was very close to the Mississippi River and its tributaries,” says Johnson, the poet and essayist.

“There was no effort to try to bring these bodies together,” he says, suggesting that those remains may never be found.

White, the descendant of one of the Black victims, is more blunt.

“No bodies have been found,” he says. “But guess what? Ain’t nobody here looking for no bodies, either.”

Our understanding of the deal which has not been signed yet is that the U.S. has given away store and got nothing in return. The word on the street is both mystifying and annoying. Mystifying in the sense that we have no idea what we gave away, Annoying to the fact that from the preliminary leaks, we were the victim of a sham which will evolve into a scam. The IRGC is still alive, how can this be allowed ?

See below, did Vance succumb to Allah? How can he defend this agreement? The U.S. spent billions of dollars to find out that the bulk of the funds have actually been wasted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUchxEFav-M

First steps in US-Iran agreement spark major Gulf breakthrough now taking shape

Trump personally signs Iran deal at Versailles in major diplomatic breakthrough

President Donald Trump personally signed the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a dinner at the Palace of Versailles. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also signed the agreement.

Covered by: Robert McGreevy, Peter Doocy, Morgan Phillips, Bonny Chu, Emma Bussey, Landon Mion and Bradford Betz

• https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/iran-war-news-trump-deal-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-june-17

In our view Trump caved. Why? Members of his own party were afraid of getting beat. They put pressure on him to make a deal.

One thing that constituents look at are GAS prices, they were through the roof. Inflation was not tamed, but on the rise, this was do to constraints in the food chain, this had nothing to do with the war with Iran.

For instance, floods, droughts caused the meat supply to shrink. Cattle farmers culled their heards because they couldn’t feed them any more.. Fertilizer was in short supply due to the war in Ukraine which Trump is trying his best to get Putin to come to the table.

Dumacrats have caught Biden’s amnesia.

As we said numerous times before “VERIFY THEN TRUST” there is no other way as we go forward with a 60 Day MOU. In the days ahead we will find out what is in it. That’s our take.

To quote ex-Speaker of the House,Nancy Pelosi, “We have to pass the bill,” she said, “so that you can find out what is in it.” The same goes true for the deal we just made with the Iranian Devil. Who is signing the MOU? Who will monitor Iran’s compliance. Have they survived the onslaught of American might? Was Israel tossed to the wind? What happens in Lebanon?  Are their neighbors safe? Will we get the Dust? What happens if the Houtis bomb Israel and can Israel reciprocate? What happens if Iran breaks the deal? What transpires after the election? These are all relevant questions that only time will tell.

Did Trump Cave because the November election is paramount? Did Trump bow to the Republican majority?¹

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https://www.facebook.com/reel/1675934536961025

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1675934536961025

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This was a slugfest, NY players were savagely beaten up by the San Antonio Spurs, but they didn’t waiver under pressure. Wemby, the dirtiest player in the league, will not live the defeat down. He was a blowhard.

Blowing leads of 16 and 29 are not something a true top-knotch caliber team does. The Knicks on the other hand pulled victory from the jaws of defeat. Congratulations to the players and coaches for providing us with entertainment, your steadfastness under pressure and your victory.

By now you heard the verdict, “GUILTY OF FIRST DEGREE MURDER.” Black killed White by plunging a shiv into his back. But this cannot stand says the Black community – the jury of 12 was all white. Metcalf’s father, “This was never about race,” Metcalf said. “It is about right and wrong. The public’s response sickens me … The moral decay is frightening.” 

The Killer:

“I respect everyone until they disrespect me,” Jeff Metcalf says in the video, which was circulating on social media. “I’ve been disrespected by so many people, so many times while I’ve had to sit here and take it.”

Jeff Metcalf went on to name multiple people, including Anthony’s father, saying he’s a coward who raised a coward. He also calls out Anthony’s mother, describing her as a “drunk b*tch” and asked her what she did to her son to “make him stab somebody.”

Below is the refrain from Dr. Stacey Patton of Howard University. According to him Black Boys are not to be reckoned with. Because they are from the hood, you never know when the Blade will cause a deadly incision in a White Boy. He forgets the fact that Anthony was told 15 times to vacate the tent.

Karmelo Anthony was asked to leave opposing team’s tent ‘15 times’ before fatal stabbing, witness says

By 

Jared Downing and

Priscilla DeGregory

Published June 5, 2026, 4:24 p.m. ET

MCKINNEY, Texas — High school track star Karmelo Anthony was asked 15 times to leave the tent for an opposing team but “refused” to — allegedly sparking the deadly stabbing of fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year, a witness testified Friday.

The witness, a 17-year-old Frisco Memorial High School student, explained that he and at least six others were under their school’s team tent when he saw Anthony in their area wearing the opposing Frisco Centennial High School gear.

Memorial students started telling Anthony, “You probably shouldn’t be here, you need to leave our tent,” recounted the witness — whose name was ordered to be withheld because of his age.

Several teammates asked Anthony, then 17, to leave around 15 times, including Metcalf. Several teammates asked Anthony, then 17, to leave around 15 times, including Metcalf

MCKINNEY, Texas — High school track star Karmelo Anthony was asked 15 times to leave the tent for an opposing team but “refused” to — allegedly sparking the deadly stabbing of fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year, a witness testified Friday.

The witness, a 17-year-old Frisco Memorial High School student, explained that he and at least six others were under their school’s team tent when he saw Anthony in their area wearing the opposing Frisco Centennial High School gear.

Memorial students started telling Anthony, “You probably shouldn’t be here, you need to leave our tent,” recounted the witness — whose name was ordered to be withheld because of his age.

Leading up to the fatal moment, Anthony had his hand in his open backpack on his lap but the students all thought he was bluffing, the witness said.

Anthony ditched the knife and bolted down the stands and onto the track.

Metcalf fell on his back, stood back up and lifted his shirt as he leaned on the railing — with a scared look on his face as he saw his bleeding chest, the teen claimed.

“Touch me and find out,” Anthony responded at the Kuykendall Stadium.

During the roughly two-minute tiff, Metcalf, 17, gave Anthony a “minor pushing” and Antho

Dr. Stacey Patton, a professor at Howard University’s School of Communications, penned an opinion piece titled “Dear Jeff Metcalf: Your Son Is Dead Because You Failed to Teach Him That Black Boys Have Boundaries” to Substack on Wednesday on Substack, where she insinuated Anthony was acting out of self-defense.

“YOU failed to teach your boy that Black children have boundaries,” Patton wrote. “YOU failed teach humility, restraint, or the sacred fact that another person’s body is not your jurisdiction. YOU failed to teach him that another child’s space is not a challenge to be conquered. YOU failed to teach him that “community” does not mean white boys get to decide who belongs and who does not.”