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A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in San Francisco, California, on June 5, 2018.

Last-Minute Tips for Figuring Out Your Ballot and Making Sure You Can Vote

By News & Current Affairs

The midterms are here. Here’s everything you need to know to hit the polls and cast an informed vote this election season. By Cynthia Gordy Giwa, ProPublica — While there are often reports of problems that can arise at the polls (maybe you’ve seen news of malfunctioning machines and registration purges in states that have early voting), a few simple steps can help make sure you’re ready to successfully cast your vote. Let’s start with…

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John A. Madison, great-grandson of Dred Scott, points to his ancestor's unmarked grave.

The Real Origins of Birthright Citizenship

By News & Current Affairs

Its purpose 150 years ago was to incorporate former slaves into the nation. By Martha S. Jones, The Atlantic — Birthright citizenship just might be, former slaves believed, the safeguard they needed. In the decades before the Civil War, in an era when a remedy like the Fourteenth Amendment was hard to imagine, free black Americans embraced the view that they were citizens by virtue of having been born on…

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Making Change: A Case for Black-Led Social Change: Panel discussion included, from left to right Keysha Taylor, board char of the African American Community Foundation; Henry Rock, founder of City Startup Labs; Janeen Bryan, a community activist and business owner; and Susan Taylor Batten, president and CEO of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE).

Major foundations must do more to support black-led organizations, speaker says at Charlotte event

By News & Current Affairs

Susan Taylor Batten, president and CEO of the Association of Black Foundation Executives, said black-led organizations must be central to addressing the legacy of racism in America. By Glenn Burkins, Qcitymetro — If America is to address the crippling legacy of slavery and racism, more money must be directed toward black-led organizations that are battling for social change, said a leading authority on philanthropic giving. Of the billions of dollars…

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Megyn Kelly and Jim Crow, a character worn in blackface used to mock African-Americans.

Megyn Kelly defended blackface on the ‘Today’ show, but here’s the racist history behind it

By News & Current Affairs

By Jacob Shamsian, Insider — “Today” host Megyn Kelly apologized Wednesday for defending blackface, the act of non-black people wearing makeup to make themselves look black. Blackface has a racist history in the United States. It was used in minstrel shows, movies, and other forms of entertainment to dehumanize African-Americans and exclude them from the entertainment industry. Mocking caricatures spread stereotypes about African-Americans that were used to deny them civil…

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Nobody would mistake Cory Booker for a radical.

Cory Booker’s Big New Policy Idea Isn’t Reparations, but It’s the Closest a Presidential Candidate Is Going to Get

By News & Current Affairs

By Jordan Weissmann — Sen. Cory Booker did not come out and propose reparations for black Americans this week. But the policy idea he rolled out on Monday might be the closest thing that we can expect to see from a serious presidential contender going into 2020. The senator from New Jersey, who is gearing up for a White House run, plans to introduce legislation soon that would create a “baby bond”…

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Lucy McBath speaking to a group of supporters in Atlanta early this month.

‘Democrat. Fighter. Mother.’ Lucy McBath Is Redefining Social Justice in Politics.

By News & Current Affairs

By Astead W. Herndon, The New York Times — An air of solemnity hangs over Lucy McBath’s bid for Congress. It is present in her campaign stump speech, when she recounts the 2012 murder of her son, Jordan Davis, a black teenager who was shot and killed by a white man at a gas station when the 17-year-old refused to lower the volume of the rap music playing in his…

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