So many complaints of retaliation continue to roll in, however, we have to include as many as possible and
turn our complaint in. Complainants are white, Asian, Hispanic and black. If it were not retaliation, but a
misunderstanding hundreds of people have voiced, the Governor might have addressed the concern or
corrected it during his Re-election campaign. What minorities in the State saw however was a commercial
put out by Governor Snyder, promising a better Michigan. The commercial had not one African American.
Teachers are aware the retaliation and threat of retaliation is occurring. Despite the notice posted, retaliation
has not ceased. It is the culture of Detroit and many school districts under Emergency Management of
Governor Snyder at this time.
School Organizations were retaliated against also. For instance, Davis Aerospace Principal, Nina GravesHicks, was chosen to run the school with no aviation experience over candidates who served in the US Air
Force. After Davis lost FAA accreditation, and after causing enrollment to drop by refusing to feed
students, she was promoted to Superintendent of another school district. Before she left in October of 2014,
Graves-Hicks phoned security to remove members of the Davis Aerospace Technical Subcommittee,
Chaired by a Tuskegee Airmen, Colonel Millben, because during the meeting, through the intercom,
Graves-Hicks stated she heard the secretary of the group, read the minutes of the last meeting, during which
the secretary read the word, “PTA”. Millben, 78, went to her office to speak with her, but she didn’t want to
take the word of a decorated Colonel of the United States Air Force. 78
The complainant reports that just the mere mention of the word, “PTA” read from the Minutes of the last
meeting was enough for Graves-Hicks to order the Technical Subcommittee meeting of Tuskegee Airmen
and mechanics, “Adjourned,” and call security!
Millben was the first African-American graduate of the academy. He served 42 years in the United States
Air Force.
Also removed from the building was Original Tuskegee Airman, 94-year-old Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson,
who was inducted into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame and was a driving force in renaming the High
School after General Benjamin O. Davis. There was no respect given to Tuskegee Airmen, she called security to
escort the men out of the building.
Colonel Millben, tried to brush it off between moments of absorbing what occurred. Millben, the first
African American to run Selfridge Air Force Base, who has volunteered at Davis for over a decade stated:
“I am 78 years old and this is the first time I have been kicked out of school.”
Most of us have not achieved the respect due to Tuskegee Airman. While everyone from filmmaker, George
Lucas, to Oprah pay homage to the Tuskegee Airman, under the control of Emergency Management of
Governor Snyder, even decorated veterans receive no respect. If a black person, (Graves-Hicks) has the gall
and the nerve to call Security on a Tuskegee Airman, then not only does she certainly deserve the
Superintendent position she received the following week, but hopefully the reader can better understand
why everyone else is afraid.
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