Skip to main content
SNCC protesters march in Montgomery, 1965

Documenting and Digitizing Democracy: The SNCC Digital Gateway

By Editors' Choice

By Ashley Farmer, Black Perspectives — “Learn from the Past, Organize the Future, Make Democracy Work.” This is the mission statement that greets visitors at the SNCC Digital Gateway—a wide-ranging, collaborative website that documents and animates the history of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Founded in April 1960 under the guidance of veteran activist Ella Baker, SNCC became a leading civil rights organization due to countless young organizers who engaged in voter…

Read More
Gentrification

Gentrification, ‘Negro Removal,’ and a Housing Crisis

By Gentrification, Reparations

By Thelá Thatch, Black Enterprise — Gentrification involves the transformation of under-invested, predominately poor communities from low value to high value. During this transformation, long-time residents and businesses are displaced; unable to afford higher rents, mortgages, and property taxes. For some, gentrification is a process of renovating deteriorated urban neighborhoods through the influx of more affluent residents. To others, gentrification magnifies the racial divide as it shifts a neighborhood’s racial…

Read More

November 12th Vantage Point: Connecting The Diaspora to Africa and Impact of the Mid-Term Elections

By Vantage Point Radio, Video/Audio

Topics: Connecting the Diaspora to Africa • The Impact of the Mid-Term Elections on Blacks and the Progressive Movement. Guests:
H.E. Arikana Chihombori-Quao (African Union Ambassador to the U.S., Washington, D.C.), Bill Fletcher (Labor and Social Justice Activist, Washington, D.C.) and Maurice Mitchell (National Director, Working Families Party, New York, NY)

Read More
Joe Neguse, a Democrat, became Colorado’s first black congressman this week.

How Did Race Play on Election Day? ‘Near Civil War-Like’? Or ‘It Really Didn’t Matter’?

By Editors' Choice

Victories in communities that had never elected a black representative run counter to the divisive rhetoric that played out in some contests across the country. By John Eligon, The New York Times — When Joe Neguse discussed his newborn child on the campaign trail in his congressional race in Colorado, he found himself empathizing with constituents concerned about early education for their own children. In his chats with millennials, the…

Read More
Kwame Nkrumah

The Time for Pan-Africanism is Now!

By Editors' Choice

Africa did not gain Independence from her erstwhile colonial masters, we regained’ it! Africa was independent before they arrived! By Sebastiane Ebatamehi, The African Exponent — We can never talk enough of Kwame Nkrumah when ever the African narrative is analyzed. He is the perfect martyr, a hero unappreciated and one who despite the betrayal from a people he loved with all his heart, left behind a compass that would guide…

Read More
Lynette Monroe is a graduate student at Howard University. Her research area is public policy as it relates to education and conflict. You can follow her on Twitter @_monroedoctrine.

Three Misconceptions About the Black Vote

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Lynette Monroe, NNPA — Black people do vote. Let’s stop perpetuating the myth that Black people don’t vote. Besides, emphasizing negative behavior will not yield positive results. Positive language reinforces positive behavior. While statistics related to health and wealth routinely place Blacks as dead last, when it comes to voting, this is not the case. Black voter turnout is higher than any other minority group, but Black people still…

Read More
A group of freshly minted lawyers at their call to the bar

How African courts glorify colonialism with wigs and gowns

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Sika-Ayiwa Afriyie, Face2Face Africa — The tradition of wearing horsehair wigs, perukes, ‘a term derived from the French word perruque (weaving wig)’ and gowns by the judiciary predates the 15th Century. In the 14th Century, during the reign of King Edward III, the accepted costume for nobles who appeared before the Court of the king was the robe. Later in the 17th Century, the gown was adopted together with the…

Read More

The Outsider Democrats Who Built the Blue Wave

By Commentaries/Opinions

Grassroots activists have organized a movement stronger than Obama’s, and the midterm elections were just the beginning. By Micah L. Sifry, The New Republic — On Saturday, November 3, three days before the midterms, 200 volunteers gathered in Modena, New York, to canvass for Antonio Delgado, an African American lawyer and first-time congressional candidate. A local field staffer, a cheery young man named Todd, told me that so many people…

Read More