
The “Queen of Soul” died Thursday. By Alex Henderson, AlterNet — The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has died at the age of 76. Franklin, who had suffered from pancreatic…
The “Queen of Soul” died Thursday. By Alex Henderson, AlterNet — The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has died at the age of 76. Franklin, who had suffered from pancreatic…
Angela Davis, whose bond Franklin offered to post in 1970, says that the singer’s work “helped to shape and deepen a collective consciousness anchored in a yearning for freedom.” By…
By Aida Alami, The New York Review of Books — Women and men press against the barbed-wire gate, waiting for the guards to let them in. Twice a week, the border crossing opens so that Haitians can get access without a visa to a market located on Dominican land in the northern city of Dajabón, just a short walk from the crossing point. Behind the crowd at the gate, a…
A drawing of one of the burials discovered at the site of the James Reese Career and Technical Center in Sugar Land, Tex. An African-American burial ground recently unearthed in…
For Haitian refugees, Trump is not a new abomination, or even a reincarnation of former Haitian exclusion, but rather a continuation of persecution against Haitians fleeing instability that U.S. empire…
Topics: Garvey’s Vision of Economic Development • The Green Party’s Candidate for Governor of NY • Victory in Ferguson. Guests: Rev. Dennis Dillon (Senior Pastor, the Rise Church, Brooklyn, NY), Howie Hawkins (Green Party Candidate for Governor, Syracuse, NY) and Melanie Randels (Community Organizer, Ferguson, MO (Invited))
Ayanna Pressley says the Democratic Party needs new blood. She’ll have to take down a popular incumbent to make her case. By Joanna Weiss, Politico Magazine — A few weeks before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her New York congressional primary, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley spoke to a roomful of young Democrats at the Bell-in-Hand, a Boston tavern that dates back to 1795. She was explaining why she should unseat a…
The far right movement may seem all but dead, but a crop of political candidates are introducing ideas into the mainstream. Vegas Tenold, The Guardian — No one would argue that the last year hasn’t been a rough one for the white nationalist movement in America. In fact, a not insignificant number of column inches has been written about how the movement is all but dead. The leader of the…
Fox News anchors and high-profile politicians are now openly pushing the racism of the alt-right. The fringe movement’s messages have permeated the mainstream Republican Party. By Adam Serwer, The Atlantic — The year since the white-supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been difficult for the rogues gallery of Nazis and pseudo-Nazis who championed it. Jason Kessler, one of the organizers, was practically run out of town and faces…
Economic inequality is an urgent problem. Deeper still is our loss of mutual respect, the foundation of a fair society. By Richard Reeves, Aeon — At the end of 2017, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority launched a new ad campaign. The Authority wasn’t selling anything. It was asking, on behalf of its bus drivers, for something; something that liberal societies need in order to flourish, that underpins social equality, and…
A year after white supremacists marched through the liberal city, Nikuyah Walker says the left needs less talk and more action. Interview by Lois Beckett, The Guardian — A year ago,…
Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is Aug. 7. By Taryn Finley, HuffPost — It took eight months and seven days into 2018 for black women to catch up to what white men earned in 2017. That means it takes a little more than 19 months for black women to reach a year’s worth of the average white man’s salary. To highlight that discrepancy, organizations including Equal Pay Today and Sheryl…