Josephine Burrell This is Me

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1. 1. pressconnects.com | 05/20/05 | News Story

   www.pressconnects.com/today/ne - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/20/2005   Last Visited: 5/20/2005

   Burrell offers voice for the needy, elderly
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   Binghamton mayoral candidate Josephine Burrell delivers campaign materials Wednesday in her North Side neighborhood. Burrell says one of the goals of her campaign is to help low-income, elderly and disabled residents gain a stronger voice in Binghamton.
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   * Josephine Burrell, 62
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   Josephine Burrell has become, however, a Democratic contender for the city's mayoral post.
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   Burrell, 62, of Binghamton, will seek the Democratic nomination on Sept. 13, during the party's primary. Three other Democrats also are running in hopes of being elected mayor of the City of Binghamton.
   
   Burrell, a former community service director for the Broome County Urban League, campaigned for former mayor Juanita Crabb and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo.
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   Burrell also has taken on City Hall. In the late 1980s, she won a racial and sexual discrimination suit against the city, claiming she didn't get a provisional appointment as a police dispatcher because she was a black woman.
   
   Burrell grew up extremely poor in the rural Deep South when segregation was prominent. She attended a one-room school where black students were required to buy their own books even though most families made as little as $10 a week. Without books to study, Burrell dropped out of school at the age of 14 and moved north when she was just 18.
   
   "I left Alabama to get away from all that," she said. "I came to New York because I was told this was the place to go if you wanted to be treated like a human."
   
   Burrell took cleaning jobs, barely making minimum wage. Realizing very little had changed, she decided to change things herself.
   
   Twenty-eight years ago, Burrell found her calling in community activism. She moved to Countrytown Apartments on the city's North Side and got involved in a dispute just five days later.
   
   "They wanted to sell these apartments and turn it into elderly housing," she said.
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   Rodney Durham, who has known Burrell for 20 years, says her compassion for people will help bring change to Binghamton.
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   Besides her 38-year-old son, Michael, Burrell cherishes her education.
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   Regardless of what people think -- even those within her own party -- Burrell believes she's not only qualified for the position, she feels she can win.
   
   "I've come a long way, and there's no way I can go back to thinking I'm a nobody," Burrell said.

2. 2. pressconnects.com | 11/18/05 | News Story

   www.pressconnects.com/today/ne - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/18/2005   Last Visited: 11/18/2005

   Ryan, a Democrat who won election Nov. 8 as the city's next mayor, was accused of shouting at and threatening Josephine Burrell on Sept. 22 outside a union hall in the Town of Dickinson.
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   Burrell, along with two other Democrats, lost a Sept. 13 primary to Ryan.
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   Kim Emmitt, Ryan's former girlfriend and a witness to the alleged harassment of Burrell, is a former Broome County assistant district attorney who worked for Mollen, the district attorney said.

3. 3. Burrell Files Complaint Agaist Ryan

   www.wbng.com/data/printer_8726 - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/24/2005   Last Visited: 9/25/2005

   Former Democratic candidate for Mayor of Binghamton, Josephine Burrell, files a harassment complaint against the democratic candidate for Binghamton Mayor.
   
   Burrell lost the democratic primary last week to Matt Ryan.
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   According to the Broome County Sheriff's office, Burrell filed a complaint saying that Ryan harassed her on Thursday night after a Meet the Candidates night at the Carpenter's Union Building on Market Street in Dickinson.
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   Neither Ryan, nor Burrell could be reached for comment.