A fighter against racist gentrification

Racist injustice won’t go unanswered on March 7 when supporters of Rev. Edward Pinkney fill the Berrien County Courthouse to demand his freedom. Pinkney is currently enduring overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the Berrien County Jail in the latest attempt to silence him.

Rev. Edward Pinkney Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization plan bus transportation from Detroit to the hearing.

Berrien Chief Judge Al Butzbaugh dragged Pinkney to jail in December 2007 for quoting scripture that calls down a curse on dishonest judiciary. Butzbaugh claimed he and his family were personally threatened. Butzbaugh now has reportedly withdrawn himself from future hearings on Pinkney’s case because he is the complainant.

Another reason to remove Butzbaugh from any legal actions involving the 58-year-old human rights activist and to release Pinkney immediately is now coming to light. Judge Butzbaugh appears to have close and longstanding ties to a son of the founders of Whirlpool Corp., the multinational appliance manufacturer headquartered in Benton Harbor, Mich.

A 1991 annual report posted on the state of Michigan website for the “Law & Title Building Condominium Association” lists Alfred M. Butzbaugh and David F. Upton as corporate officers.

Rev. Pinkney regularly exposed racism in the Berrien County courts. But he went too far for the local ruling class when he organized the successful recall of Benton Harbor City Commissioner-at-large Glenn Yarbrough in 2005. Yarbrough was viewed as pivotal to rubber-stamping approval for the half-billion-dollar Harbor Shores upscale housing and retail development, including a Jack Nicklaus golf course.

According to a Feb. 14 Western Michigan Business Review online article, “Work Continues on Harbor Shores Site,” three organizations co-own the Harbor Shores developer. They are Cornerstone Alliance, Alliance for World-Class Communities and Whirlpool Foundation. According to the Whirlpool corporate Web site, Cornerstone Alliance is also funded by Whirlpool.

Rev. Pinkney was charged with voter fraud—which he denied—and the election attempt to recall Yarbrough was overturned. Pinkney’s first trial ended in a deadlock but he was convicted in a second trial by an all-white jury. Benton Harbor, Pinkney’s home, is 90 percent African-American. That decision is now in the appeal process.

In an interview published in the February-March edition of Critical Moment, Rev. Pinkney explained: “We were still fighting them taking over the city of Benton Harbor—Whirlpool, Harbor Shores, planning commissioners, Cornerstone Alliance. They were all working together against the people that live inside the city; so their whole plan was to drive the people of Benton Harbor out of the city. We did everything we could to stop them.”

MECAWI is organizing transportation to Pinkney’s hearing in Benton Harbor on March 7. Those wishing to go and stand up to racist gentrification and state repression can call MECAWI at 313-680-5508.