CHARLES W.
TISDALE
VOL. 72, NO. 28 APRIL 29-MAY 5, 2010
Mike Roberts
to speak
atTougaloo
By ReJohn Mit’chel
JA Contributing Writer
Michael V.
(Mike)
Roberts, the
owner of the
Roberts Ho-
tels Group
along with
his brother,
Steven
Roberts is
the com-
mencement
speaker for
Tougaloo
College’s spring convocation and
graduation. The class of 2010 can
look to be inspired by the words of
wisdom and experience delivered by
Black Enterprise Magazine’s entre-
preneur of year and Ebony maga-
zine’s most influential business
leader.
“My message to every individual
at the school—that includes stu-
dents, parents, friends, loved ones,
faculty and staff—is to aspire to take
action on your dreams, ideas, wishes
and concepts. Your education is the
beginning of your action; continue
to act upon your dreams. Do not
defer your dreams. Fulfill your
dreams. Wake up, stand up, and act,”
said Roberts. “I enjoy speaking.
My message is simple. I want to in-
spire individuals all over the nation
to act on your dreams. “
Mike and Steve Roberts became a
major part of the Jackson Commu-
nity in 2008 when they purchased
the renowned Edison Walthall Hotel
for nearly $4 million from Earl Gay-
lor, after their failed attempt to ac-
quire the Standard Life Building.
“I like Jackson,” Roberts said.
“My brother and I are strong sup-
porters of Mayor Harvey Johnson,
and we are pleased to have a pres-
ence in the City and the State as a
whole. I believe that Jackson has a
great future for growth and the
Roberts Group is proud to be a part
of that growth.”
Roberts Hotels Group, the largest
African American-owned and -man-
aged hotel group in the U.S., is now
Choice Hotels International’s largest
African American franchisee.
Roberts Hotels Group’s properties
include the Comfort Inn and Confer-
ence Center Hotel of Tampa,
Florida, and the Clarion Hotel of
Shreveport, Louisiana, the Comfort
Inn & Suites hotel of Fort Myers,
Florida, the Roberts Benchmark
Clarion Hotel of Memphis, and the
Roberts Walthall Clarion Hotel of
Jackson, Mississippi.
The Roberts Cos., parent company
of Roberts Group Hotels, is a multi-
faceted enterprise that includes ho-
tels and conference centers,
shopping centers, residential devel-
opment, as well as four television
stations (including WRBJ-TV in
Jackson), a radio station (WRBJ-
FM, also in Jackson), a cellular
broadcast tower company, and an
aviation company. Choice Hotels In-
ternational franchises more than
5,700 hotels, representing more than
465,000 rooms in the United States,
and more than 35 countries and ter-
ritories.
The business partners and brothers
were named Emerging Entrepre-
neurs of the Year by Ernst & Young
in 2007 for expanding St. Louis-
based Roberts Hotels Group from a
single hotel — the historic Mayfair
hotel in downtown St. Louis — in
2003 to nearly a dozen properties in
the Midwest and South in less than
five years.
In 2006, the brothers netted more
than $100 million on the sale of
their share of the nation’s largest
Sprint PCS affiliate.
THE VOICE OF BLACK
Second man arrested in
Barrett murder released
Peter “Shun” Holmes shown minutes after being released from Rankin County jail in the Barrett murder case.
Holmes was held five days in isolation, although he was not involved in the Barrett murder, officials said.
By Earnest McBride
JA Contributing Editor
Even in death, arch white su-
premacist Richard Barrett has been
able to cause havoc in the lives of
unsuspecting, innocent black people.
For nearly five days, Peter “Shun”
Holmes, 31, the common-law
brother-in-law of Vincent McGee,
who is now the only suspect in the
Barrett homicide, sat bruised and
battered in solitary confinement in-
side the Rankin County jail, first
charged with accessory to murder,
then with narcotics possession, and
then with disorderly conduct and re-
sisting arrest before being released
Monday evening after the Jackson
Advocate began asking Rankin
County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington
why he was denying this man his
basic rights.
Three hours later, Peter “Shun”
Holmes came walking out of jail
“ROR,” as jailhouse jargon puts it---
Released on his own Recognizance.
All the earlier charges were dropped,
Pennington said. But the disorderly
conduct and resisting arrest--admit-
ted by Pennington to be omnibus
charges simply by which to hold
‘IT’S ALL GONE!’
State’s deadly tornadoes leave residents wondering what’s next
This photo is all that is left of Bernetta James’ sister’s (Debbie Smith) trailer home and mother’s (Mrs.
Lee Smith) home in Holmes Co.
MISSISSIPPIANS
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
Holmes in custody--are still pending.
Yet the sheriff came close to admit-
ting that even these two misde-
meanor charges had no real
substance.
Lakeshia Ronie, Holmes’ sister,
had gone to her brother’s house in
rural northeast Pearl shortly after 4
p.m. last Thursday and saw him as
the officers led him away.
“His face was bloody, his lip was
swollen,” she said. “They sat him
down on the side of the house. One
of the deputies said they were taking
him in for questioning. I asked the
deputy what had happened and he
said he didn’t know. They were only
taking him in for questioning. But
they held him five days without let-
ting us contact him.
“We called every day for five
days, and they gave us three differ-
ent charges. We talked to one person;
they were saying this was not true.
We talked to someone else and they
said it is true. And, you know,
they’re all up there together.”
So Holmes’ family knew that he
had been taken out the back door of
his trailer home in southeast Pearl
under the orders of Sheriff Penning-
LIBRARY DEDICATION
The Charles Wesley Tisdale Public Library
Dedication is set for Saturday, May 1,
2010, at 10:30 a.m. Ben Jealous, NAACP
President/CEO, will be on hand for the fes-
tivities. The library is located at 807 E.
Northside Drive, Jackson. The event is free
and open to the public. For more informa-
tion, call 601-366-0021 or 601-948-4122.
www.jacksonadvocate.com
ton in the same sweeping action that
saw the arrest of Vincent McGee.
McGee had been dropped off at the
Holmes’ trailer home late the same
morning that Barrett’s body was dis-
covered. McGee is the brother of
Daphne McGee, Peter Holmes’
common-law wife. There was noth-
ing unusual about McGee’s coming
for a visit, Holmes said. McGee, still
under parole after being released
from prison, liked being around the
couple’s four kids, all pre-teens, who
were his nephews and nieces.
Around 4 p.m. Thursday, McGee
sat nearest the door inside the trailer
as Holmes sat on the couch. McGee
got up to answer a rap on the door
and he was immediately grabbed by
the deputies after he opened the
door, according to Holmes, who was
sitting on the couch drinking a beer
at the time.
Holmes said that he heard one of
the deputies say, “Take him, too,”
after they had pulled McGee through
the front doorway. A still bloody, en-
crusted two-inch gash on Holmes’
lip Monday evening was a graphic
witness to what his sister Lakeshia
See Murder on 19A
SECTION A 50¢
Chris Epps
criticized as
NAACP
speaker
By Earnest McBride
JA Contributing Editor
Supporters of
the effort to re-
lease the Scott
Sisters from
Mississippi
State prison
raised questions
about the selec-
tion of Depart-
ment of
Corrections
commissioner
Christopher Epps as keynote speaker at
the Jackson County NAACP Branch’s
annual Freedom Fund Banquet on April
30.
Jackson County NAACP officials said
they invited Epps as keynote speaker in
order to have him explain why a large
new jail facility was being built in the
heart of the black community in Moss
Point and that it was not an occasion to
honor him for his term as head of
MDOC.
Jamie and Gladys Scott have been
jailed since December 1993 and were
sentenced to two life sentences each in
October 1994 after being convicted of
armed robbery. No evidence was pre-
sented in the robbery case that purport-
edly amounted to only $11. Recently,
Jamie Scott has suffered failure of both
kidneys and her sister Gladys has been
reported as the victim of assault in the
women’s prison facility at Pearl.
A nationwide campaign has been
mounted to free the Scott sisters. Numer-
ous petitions were sent to Gov. Haley
Barbour and Commissioner Epps, with
no action on them so far.
The theme of Friday’s gathering is
“NAACP: One Nation, One Dream.”
“How could the Jackson County Branch
NAACP, which is actually portrayed as an
activist branch that has courageously taken
on the police department and most recent
the fire department, completely ignore the
sickeningly outrageous case of the Scott
Sisters?” asks Marpessa Kupendua, a
spokeswoman for the Scott sisters’ support
group, including the immediate family.
“And to add insult to injury, they laud
Christopher Epps, who covers up the low-
budget, some-timey care that denies Jamie
Scott regular medications, regular dialysis,
and the specific diet she has been told re-
peatedly that she needs to maintain any
semblance of health. The medical care is
said by inmates there to be abysmal on
every level, and particularly so for Jamie
Scott, with end stage kidney failure.”
See Epps on 19A
By Alice Thomas-Tisdale
Jackson Advocate Publisher
It’s not unusual for local firefighter
Eddie James to be in Jackson while his
wife, Bernetta, is tending to her elderly
mother 40 miles away in Holmes County
near Pickens. But Saturday’s deadly tor-
nado kept them apart much longer than
expected after the wind tore the roof from
the home, leaving her to find shelter in
the bathroom under a piling of insulation
to hide her and her mothers’ eyes from the
flying glass. Closed roads kept James
from getting to his wife, forcing him to
turn around and return the following day.
“It was hard not being able to reach them,
but thank God we could communicate by
See Tornado on 19A