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Commentaries/Opinions

Alex King and D'Angelo McDade at the March for Our Lives, Washington, DC, March 24, 2018

What Happens When You Put Young People of Color at the Center of #NeverAgain

By Commentaries/Opinions

Gun control becomes only one part of the larger solution to violence in our communities. By Lori Bezahler — The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have catalyzed a social movement demanding an end to gun violence. While their leadership and moral authority have undoubtedly taken the movement to another level, youth-led activism against gun violence is not, in fact, new. In Florida in 2013, for example…

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Stokely Carmichael of SNCC at Florida A&M University, 1967

The Absence of Political Economy in African Diaspora Studies

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Charisse Burden-Stelly — The Black Studies movement, inaugurated in the late 1960s by student- and community-based demands for a “more relevant education,” represented the intellectual expression of political Pan-Africanism in United States colleges and universities. According to St. Clair Drake, “Pan-Africanism ha provided a distinct global focus for Black Studies since the programs became a part of the campus scene in the late sixties and early seventies…

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Shooting survivors Tyra Hemans and Emma Gonzalez from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the March for Our Lives, Washington, DC, March 24, 2018.

The Adults Have Failed, So Students Are Leading the Way

By Commentaries/Opinions

It was young people who made possible the largest gun-control rally in a generation. By George Zornick — Sydney Neal was already planning to attend the March for Our Lives in Washington when tragedy struck her community on Tuesday. A student opened fire at the nearby Great Mills High School, killing 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey and wounding another student. On Saturday morning, Neal, the president of the association of student councils…

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Alicia Garza

Black Americans Face ‘Impossible Choices’ at Election Time. Alicia Garza Wants to Change That.

By Commentaries/Opinions

The co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement talked to The Nation about her initiative to engage skeptics and build political power among black communities. By Collier Meyerson — In 2015, I profiled activist and organizer Alicia Garza as part of Glamour’s “Women of the Year” issue. Garza, along with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, is credited with coining the phrase #BlackLivesMatter, popularizing the hashtag and for its quick ascendance…

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