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U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey is among the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who've traveled to the South to talk about voting rights. In this 2016 photo, Booker is seen discussing voting rights at the U.S. Capitol with Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

2020 presidential candidates go South to push for voting reforms

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Benjamin Barber, Facing South — As Republican lawmakers in Southern states continue their efforts to undermine the influence of a diverse electorate, Democratic presidential candidates are calling for new reforms to combat discriminatory voting policies and practices. Since the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and ended federal preclearance of election-law changes in places with a history of voting discrimination, state…

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Report Back From the N’COBRA Convention and the State of the Presidential Race — Vantage Point Radio

By Vantage Point Radio, Video/Audio

7/08/19 Vantage Point Radio — Host Dr. Ron Daniels talks with guests Mashariki Jywanza (Co-Chairperson, N’COBRA, Indianapolis, IN), Kamm Howard (Co-Chairperson, N’COBRA, Chicago, IL), Rev. Mark Thompson (Talk Show Host, New York, NY) and callers about the N’COBRA Convention and the State of the Presidential Race

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“If there was something to do in this town, this town would prosper, because there’s a lot of loyal people here, a lot of good people,” said Tre Lewis, who lives with his family on Youngstown’s south side.

The Nonwhite Working Class

By Editors' Choice

Talking to the people in Youngstown, Ohio, that the national media usually ignores. By Henry Graber, The Slate — YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—In 1984, Lewis Macklin stood up at a community meeting and argued that city officials should shut down his high school. It had been seven years since Black Monday—when Youngstown Sheet & Tube announced it was closing its largest factory, costing 5,000 people their jobs and setting off a chain of plant…

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Community Land Trusts Are a Model for Reparations

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

In a racialized economy, land trusts and cooperatives offer a lasting form of reparations, say activists. By Laura Flanders, Truthout — This year has already seen more Democrats talking about reparations than ever, including several running for the presidency. Now, rather than writing checks to individuals, more and more people are talking about collective strategies for repair and reparation. Community land trusts, cooperatives and mutual housing associations, for example, might…

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Toni Morrison

A Documentary That Shows Another Side of Toni Morrison

By Commentaries/Opinions, Reparations

This moving and profound portrait serves as a fitting biographical tribute as well as a piercing, often painful recount of African American history from slavery and the Civil War to the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights movement and beyond. By Syreeta McFadden, The Atlantic — One of my white teachers in high school insisted that Toni Morrison would be confusing to me as a reader. So I approached the…

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A mural of Bob Marley at Notting Hill Carnival in 2012.

Jamaica Is Using Bob Marley’s Legacy to Market Austerity

By Editors' Choice

The reggae icon would be embarrassed by his country’s attempts to rebrand a disastrous ideology. By Keston Perry, The Nation — The island nation of Jamaica holds a special, almost spiritual significance for many people of color, as well as for anyone concerned about advancing equality and justice in the world. It is the birthplace of the Rastafari movement, reggae, dancehall—and democratic socialism before it became popular in the United States.…

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Customs and Border Protection

A Brief History of US Concentration Camps

By Editors' Choice

There is no doubt that concentration camps are in operation on US soil once again. By Brett Wilkins — Concentration camp (noun): a place in which large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. – Oxford English Dictionary Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has ignited a…

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General William Tecumseh Sherman in May 1865. Portrait by Mathew Brady.

The Truth Behind ’40 Acres and a Mule’

By Editors' Choice, Reparations

By Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — We’ve all heard the story of the “40 acres and a mule” promise to former slaves. It’s a staple of black history lessons, and it’s the name of Spike Lee’s film company. The promise was the first systematic attempt to provide a form of reparations to newly freed slaves, and it was astonishingly radical for its time, proto-socialist in its implications. In fact, such…

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