One month ago, the nation’s consciousness around race relations was awoken abruptly following the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. For many people, this awakening was a sharp reminder that the victories of the Civil Rights era aren’t so far back in the shadows…
What happened in Ferguson, Mo., last month was a tragedy. What’s on course to happen there next month will be a farce.
“Hands up, don’t shoot!” has been the cry of the thousands who took to the streets seeking justice for Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9. According to multiple witnesses, Brown had his hands in the air—a gesture generally understood to signal surrender—when Wilson shot him to death.
There’s no shortage of calls for racial healing or proposals for community initiatives in slowly back-to-normal Ferguson, Mo.
President Obama came to the Presidency as the peace time President and two years before he leaves office, he has been forced into being a war time President.
The first abolition struggle arose to oppose slavery. For the most part, it did not challenge the idea of white supremacy. It did not advocate for racial equality. It sought the end of chattel slavery. Period. The second developed to abolish the Jim Crow version of apartheid that replaced slavery.
IN my column a week ago, “When Whites Just Don’t Get It,” I took aim at what I called “smug white delusion” about race relations in America, and readers promptly fired back at what they perceived as a smugly deluded columnist.
The civil rights leader has had a rough decade, but his campaigns for president paved the way for Barack Obama and brought about a better, more inclusive America.
Mike Brown’s murder, and the brutalizing way his killing was turned into a public spectacle, has much to do with the ways Black lives are literally and symbolically devalued in neighborhoods throughout the US.
Former NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson march with Trayvon Martin supporters through the historically African-American community…
On Sept. 15, at Tufts University’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, we will host the second annual National Dialogue on Race Day. This year’s program carries particular significance in light of the tragic death of Michael Brown and last month’s events in Ferguson, Mo., and we are committed to advancing a better understanding of what we’ve all seen.
Last Thursday, I boarded a bus with about 40 people for an 18-hour bus ride to Ferguson, Missouri, as part of what we termed the Black Lives Matter Rides. Twenty hours later, we joined riders from all over the country who descended on St. Louis and Ferguson to show solidarity with local activists and residents still fighting for justice in the police killing of 18-year-old unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
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The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW21) is committed to enhancing the capacity of Black communities in the U.S. and globally to achieve cultural, social, economic and political equality and an enhanced quality of life for all marginalized people. – Learn more here
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