Skip to main content
The Democrat Stacey Abrams is vying to be the first African American woman governor in U.S. history.

The Democratic Party Apologizes to Black Voters

By News & Current Affairs

The DNC’s bid to energize African American turnout this fall began with these words from Chairman Tom Perez in Atlanta: “I am sorry.” By Russell Berman, The Atlantic — ATLANTA—Swanky fund-raisers don’t often begin with an apology to the well-heeled donors who shelled out thousands of dollars to sip wine, eat steak, and listen to pep-rally speeches. But as he looked out over a predominantly black crowd gathered at the Georgia…

Read More
Cori Bush is running for Congress in Missouri, aiming to defeat a lawmaker who has served in the House for 17 years.

The next Ocasio-Cortez: will these candidates pull Democrats to the left?

By News & Current Affairs

The New York activist’s upset primary victory has fueled hopes – and boosted funding – for progressives in Democratic races across the US By Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian — One day in mid-June, Cori Bush, a nurse and activist mounting a progressive primary challenge against a well-established Democratic congressman in Missouri, took a look at her fundraising totals. She had raised $9 during the previous 24 hours. On the evening of…

Read More
Left to right: Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens; an African-American soldier in the Union Army; abolitionist Frederick Douglass

The Urgency of a Third Reconstruction

By Editors' Choice

The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment marked a turning point in U.S. history. Yet 150 years later, its promises remain unfulfilled. By Robert Greene, Dissent — The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment on July 9, 1868 was a turning point in United States history. Arriving at the height of Reconstruction, the amendment marked the first time the U.S. Constitution explicitly addressed the question of who qualified as an American citizen.…

Read More
About 12.7 percent of Americans lived below the poverty line in 2016.

Why the war on poverty in the US isn’t over, in 4 charts

By Editors' Choice

By Robert L. Fischer, The Conversation — On July 12, President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded that America’s long-running war on poverty “is largely over and a success.” I am a researcher who has studied poverty for nearly 20 years in Cleveland, a city with one of the country’s highest rates of poverty. While the council’s conclusion makes for a dramatic headline, it simply does not align with the reality of poverty in the U.S.…

Read More
Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama

The Deep History Behind Barack Obama’s Speech for the Centennial of Nelson Mandela’s Birth

By Editors' Choice

By Olivia B. Waxman, TIME — When Barack Obama delivers the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg on Tuesday, to mark this week’s centennial of the late anti-apartheid champion Nelson Mandela’s birth, the moment will be a deeply personal one for the former president. His speechwriter Ben Rhodes has said that Obama considers it to be the most important speech since leaving office, and Obama has written that his political awakening…

Read More
Kamala Harris (Left), Cory Booker (Right)

Black top and mid-level staffers are hard to find among Democratic Senators even in states with large black populations

By News & Current Affairs

By Frederick H. Lowe — U.S. Senators who represent states with significant black populations have people of color in top and mid-level positions but not many African Americans, according to a report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C. -based non-partisan public policy organization. Of the 147 top-level positions held by Democrats in the U.S. Senate, only three are held by blacks, representing 2 percent…

Read More

In his first major speech since leaving office, Obama decries inequality and ‘strongman politics’

By Editors' Choice, Video/Audio

Former President Barack Obama delivers his first major speech since leaving office, addressing inequality and other issues at the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg, South Africa. Video via Time. A written commentary by Summer Meza and an article by Jelani Cobb (In Celebrating Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama Indicts Trumpism).

Read More