The issue is beyond race and Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law. George Zimmerman’s fear of Trayvon Martin led to murder and his acquittal. Since fear for his life, even if unreasonable, allowed Zimmerman to walk free. Then, what of other fear-based prejudices?
BY JULIANNE MALVEAUX Last week workers at fast food restaurants demonstrated outside their places of work, highlighting the low wages they receive and demanding more. They say twice as much, or $15 an hour, will provide them with a living wage. In Washington, DC, the City Council has sent legislation to Mayor Vincent Gray, requiring […]
During the hot afternoon of Saturday, July 20, Courtney Stewart, founder and chairman of the volunteer organization Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, knocked on doors and walked the streets of Southwest’s Greenleaf and James Creek neighborhoods, in search of reentering citizens to register as voters. Additional volunteers registered people at the King Greenleaf Recreation Center at 201 N Street in Southwest.
In my most recent article, I asserted that Economic Sanctions/Boycott Florida is an idea whose time has come. The iconic Chaka Khan has added her name to the list of celebrities joining Stevie Wonder in refusing to perform in Florida until the “Stand Your Ground Law” is changed. This is great news, but I also am convinced that it will be the conscious decision of millions of ordinary Black folks that will ultimately determine the success of the Boycott Florida Campaign. In a real sense, this effort is a test of our collective sense of dignity, self-respect and will as Black people.
President Barack Obama should lead a forceful drive to revive the Voting Rights Act, which was effectively disemboweled by the Supreme Court’s decision last week. All celebrate the 1965 Act as the most consequential civil rights legislation of the past century. Its passage was central to the building of the New South, opening the way to attracting foreign investment in auto factories, creating CNN, hosting the Super Bowl, even electing presidents. One afflicted with a poisoned heart is often blind to its effects. The South learned only after the civil rights legislation that segregation was blighting its own potential. In …
By Bob Wing*
The heartless combination of the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the House Republicans flatly shunning the immigration bill and the Trayvon Martin outrage should be a wake up call about the grave dangers posed by the far right and may give rise to a renewed motion among African Americans that could give much needed new impetus and political focus to the progressive movement.
50th anniversary of the Great March must address King’s challenge
It’s been two years since Governor Jerry Brown was court ordered to fix California’s ailing prisons and the situation is still life-threatening and possibly illegal.
It’s been all over the papers and many bloggers are tackling the horrendous conditions in California. A prison system that in 2011 was ordered by the Supreme Court to figure out what to do with 30,000 people who because of the system’s overcrowding were suffering “cruel and unusual punishment.”
By Maya Schenwar Twenty years ago, when acclaimed neuroscientist Carl Hart began studying drugs, he was motivated by a desire to help communities like the one in which he grew…
by Emily Smith
In the private prison industry, longer sentences earn more money from the state.
Since 2003, Ciavarella received millions of dollars in bribes for condemning minors to maximum prison sentences. In one case, Ciavarella sentenced a 10-year-old to two years in a detention facility for accidentally bottoming out his mother’s car.
How can I make anyone understand what it’s like to cling desperately to the hope of someday being heard because that’s the only hope left? That’s one reason why the…
The United States Senate finally stepped up to ensure that student loan rates would not double, as might have happened. There have been weeks of back and forth, but now the Senate says they will tie student loan rates to the federal funds rate, which means that in the short run the lowest student loan rates will be […]
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