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R. Drew Smith Professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Co-Convener, Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race

National Reconciliation Without Accountability Rings Hollow

By Commentaries/Opinions

By R. Drew Smith Professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Co-Convener, Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race — Twenty-five years ago, Nelson Mandela was elected South African president after serving 27 years in prison for leading resistance against racially-oppressive apartheid rule. During that same moment in April of 1994, a horrible tragedy was unfolding further north on the African continent as longstanding ethnic grievances within Rwanda irr

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NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. and BNC

Black News Channel (BNC) A New 24/7 News Network Scheduled to Launch in November 2019

By News & Current Affairs

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA — In a joint teleconference broadcast live from the Four Season’s Hotel in New York’s Financial District, the Black News Channel (BNC) and the National Newspaper Publishers Association announced the official launch date and time for the nation’s first 24-hour, 7-days a week all-news TV channel that will focus on African American news. The new channel promises to inform, educate, and empower nearly 50 million…

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Students at Concord Middle School study the abolitionist movement from a local perspective with artifacts provided by the Concord Museum.

Americans show spotty knowledge about the history of slavery but acknowledge its enduring effects

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

By Emily Guskin, Scott Clement and Joe Heim, The Washington Post — Americans have spotty knowledge of central facts about the history of slavery in the United States, although younger adults have an edge over their elders, according to a Washington Post-SSRS poll. Even so, a solid majority say the legacy of slavery affects American society today, including majorities across racial, partisan and generational lines. The Post-SSRS poll quizzed a random…

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Kids play basketball at Wilson Park near where Interstate 81 slices through a public housing complex in Syracuse, N.Y.

In Syracuse, a road and reparations

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By Robert Samuels, Washington Post — This city’s south side was devastated when a highway section went up. Now that there’s talk of taking it down, residents think they should be protected — and compensated. SYRACUSE, N.Y. — When Ryedell Davis heard the 1.5-mile stretch of elevated highway slicing through this city might be torn down, he had a vision about what could emerge from its dust. He could open…

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A crowd gathers in Abbeville, South Carolina, to commemorate a memorial to Anthony Crawford, a prominent Black businessman who was killed by a lynch mob in 1916.

On Reparations, Let Impacted Communities Lead the Way

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

By David Ragland, Melinda Salazar and Tarell Kyles — The campaign FOR Truth and Reparations hosted the Black Manifesto Revival in Atlanta’s historic Candler Park neighborhood this past May. The revival was in observance of the 50th anniversary of the Black Manifesto, which initially demanded $500 million in reparations (and later $3 billion) from Christian European American churches…

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