---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Jonathan Farley <lattice.theory@gmail.com>
Date: 2009/5/19
Subject: libelous letter by Tommie Morton-Young in MIT's "The Tech" newspaper
To: Nick Bushak <
nbushak@the-tech.mit.edu>
Cc: Paul Schindler <
pes@schindler.org>, Andrew Lukmann <
lukymann@mit.edu>, Steve Howland <
showland@mit.edu>, Marissa Vogt <
marissav06@gmail.com>
2009/5/19 Nick Bushak
<nbushak@the-tech.mit.edu>
Dear Dr. Farley:
The Division of Student Life referred your call regarding The Tech to
me as Editor in Chief, and I am writing to you in response. As I've
previously written to you, we are open to considering for publication
a brief letter from you responding to Dr. Young's letter.
Sincerely yours,
Nick Bushak
Editor in Chief
The Tech
May 19, 2009
Dear Mr. Bushak:
I trust you are having a pleasant day. Thank you for your response.
As I indicated earlier, the letter MIT's "The Tech" newspaper published, containing false and defamatory libel in the body, and especially the false and defamatory headline created by MIT's "The Tech" staff---which, especially in academia, carries severe consequences in terms of employment---warrant more than your "consideration" of a "brief" response.
If you consult with any newspaper editor or with MIT's general counsel, they will assure you that this libelous and defamatory letter, by the perhaps 70 year-old Tommie Morton-Young, with the headline provided by MIT's "The Tech" staff, should never have been "considered" for publication, if only for reasons I have already indicated to your Opinion Page Editor Andrew Lukmann, who published the letter with its headline, your Managing Editor Steve Howland, and you, the Editor-in-Chief. Please refer to some of those reasons at the bottom of this email.
Tommie Morton-Young's letter was not actually a countervailing view of my essay, as she in fact agrees with the one sentence I wrote about her: that she did not assist me in her role as an NAACP officer when I was attacked by supporters of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. (A proper response would have been if she had said the NAACP *did* help me---which would still have been false---or if she had given the reasons why the NAACP did not help me, a Life Member of the NAACP, against supporters of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. But all that is now by the by.) Tommie Morton-Young's other statements, which are false and defamatory, are analogous to Person A writing an essay about the Korean War or solar cells and Person B writing a letter to the editor saying that Person A robbed a bank. This is not a he-said-she-said matter.
I am formally demanding that a retraction of the letter by Tommie Morton-Young be published by MIT's "The Tech" newspaper as soon as possible, and published once again when students return in the Fall of 2009, that this retraction make the context clear, and that it appear everywhere on the web that the false and defamatory letter by Tommie Morton-Young appears. I also demand the name of the individual who drafted the headline of the letter.
I recommend you show this letter to your counsel, whose name and address I now want you to send to me, and to MIT's general counsel.
Cordially,
Jonathan Farley, D.Phil. (University of Oxford)
former Visiting Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics, calendar years 2003 and 2004
***************************************************************************
Dear Steve and Andrew,
Thanks for the swift reply. I hope you will understand if this email is long, as this is an extremely serious matter.
Regarding the letter by Tommie Morton-Young in the March 10, 2009 edition of The Tech (MIT)
http://tech.mit.edu/V129/PDF/N11.pdfin response to my essay in the February 13, 2009 edition
http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N4/farley.html
First, it is unclear why the letter was published, as I state in my essay that Tommie Morton-Young, a Nashville NAACP officer in 2005, did not assist me when I was attacked by supporters of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, and she confirms in her letter that she did not assist me.
At the bottom of this email I provide two emails from Tommie Morton-Young which virtually span my entire interaction with her: The first is from July 7, 2005, and it is clearly the first email or one of the very first emails between Tommie Morton-Young and myself. The last is from July 22, 2005, and it is almost certainly the last email I received from her. I probably sent her a reply, but certainly no more than a tiny number of emails, if any, beyond that. This is a less-than-three-week period. The emails also make it clear that she is the NAACP officer handling my case. (I have edited the emails only by deleting the copies of my emails that she was replying to.) Please note her requests for much information from me, her request for me to file a formal complaint with the NAACP, of which she was an officer, and her statement that the NAACP "is obligated to follow-up."
Now, going through Tommie Morton-Young's letter in The Tech:
1. The title of the letter in The Tech is clearly libel, false and defamatory, and of all the published statements the one most likely to do me monetary damage.
2. Paragraph 1, sentence 1.
I proved that this was false by showing you my email to Tommie Morton-Young, in which I gave her a link to my essay in The Tech the date it was published, February 13, 2009.
3. Paragraph 2, sentence 1.
This is false and defamatory libel for which no evidence is provided.
4. Paragraph 2, sentence 2.
Her claim about Dr. Charles Kimbrough's view of me is hearsay. It would be interesting if The Tech could contact Dr. Kimbrough, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and confirm if he agrees with Tommie Morton-Young's assessment.
Tommie Morton-Young is referring to the year 2005. If my cell phone provider has kept the records, I can confirm that I had long conversation with Dr. Kimbrough the *following year*, in 2006. He congratulated me when I was put on the cover of the national NAACP's magazine, The Crisis (attached). I believe, in fact, that he called me, which seems at odds with Tommie Morton-Young's claim of his assessment of me.
Indeed, of all the people in the Nashville NAACP, Dr. Kimbrough was the only person to provide me with assistance when I was attacked by the supporters of the Ku Klux Klan, by connecting me with Nashville Detective Derrick Hutchinson in 2002, which you can confirm with the Nashville police. It was to Detective Hutchinson that I initially reported the death threats.
5. Paragraph 3, sentence 3.
Tommie Morton-Young's statement about "exhausting NAACP appeals" is clearly refuted by her emails below: her July 7, 2005 email clearly shows me *starting* the process of an NAACP investigation, which even by the end of her interaction with me (the July 22, 2005 email) she is urging me to continue with the president of the Nashville NAACP chapter, Arnett Bodenhamer.
Moreover, if an appeals process had been exhausted, Tommie Morton-Young should be able to provide The Tech with official letters from the NAACP in 2005, addressed to me, stating this. These letters do not exist. (This of course also begs the question of why the NAACP did not assist me against supporters of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, but that is another issue.)
The final clause of the sentence contains false and defamatory libel for which she provides no evidence. Indeed, the point of my essay is that I could get very little assistance from any African-American to take "action per my cause".
6. Paragraph 4, sentence 1.
This is false and defamatory libel.
7. Paragraph 4, sentence 2.
Tommie Morton-Young provides no evidence that she has done this. If it were true, she should provide The Tech with official, verifiable evidence from the phone company that she did this in 2005. She should also provide The Tech with official, verifiable evidence from the phone company that a large number of calls were placed from my phone to hers. If my cell phone company's records go back that far, I can provide evidence that this did not take place.
Although she does not mention emails, she should also be able to provide The Tech with copies of a large number of emails from me to her beyond July 2005, if her claim (which is false) were true. These do not exist.
The Tech should never have published her accusation, not even if the word "alleged" had been used (which it wasn't).
8. Paragraph 5.
This paragraph borders on libel and gives the appearance that there was something incorrect in my essay without actually saying so or providing any evidence.
Finally, The Tech editors should ask what prompted such an extreme response from Tommie Morton-Young when all I wrote was that she, as a Nashville NAACP officer, did not assist me---as she herself confirms.
Regards,
Jonathan Farley, D.Phil. (Oxon.)
(Visiting Associated Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT, calendar years 2003 and 2004)
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 23:44:36 -0500
From: tommie young <
aagen1@msn.com>
To: Jonathan Farley <
lattice@math.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: Vanderbilt working with United Daughters of the
Confederacy(confidential---p
Thanks for the information. Have you written the NAACP (Nashville Branch), filed documents with them, and formally registered a complaint. I have tried to reach black personnel at Vandy in my role as Chair of Education. The student I contacted never returned my calls. The Johnson Cultural Center should be a good source for getting the information of the key players in the Black Student/Faculty/Alumni networks, but I have gotten little from that source.
Incidentally, Dr. Dobson of the Black Cultural Centerwas on tv this evening discussing Vanderbilt.
Do you have the names and contacts for the Black Faculty/Employees groups If so, please forward them to me.
BTW. When a complaint has been filed, the NAACP is obligated to follow-up. Did you ever talk with a Dr. Richardson, my predecessor on the EC? He has spoken of meeting with Dr. Gee. However, it seems that those encounters have been 'tea and crumpets' sort of things. I am more the nuts and bolts kind of person.
Do telephone the NAACP Office (615. 329-0999) and request a form to formally file a complaint. We will work from there.
Has been nice talking with you, and I hope some positive resolution will come out of all of this.
Let me hear from you on your next step.
Peace,
Tommie Morton-Young
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 22:16:59 -0500
From: tommie young <
aagen1@msn.com>
To: Jonathan Farley <
lattice@math.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: thanks
Dr. Farley,
I wish you well in all of your endeavors, but I do not think our Committee is the one to
deal with the issues you propose. Therefore, while you have sent me most interesting information, it will not be necessary to send further materials. You have spoken with our President, Mr. Bodenhamer and you may want to address future comments to him.
With kind regards,
Tommie Morton-Young, Ph. D.
