As Trump highlights declining jobless figures, Kansas City offers a window into how the recovery has passed many African Americans by. By Caleb Gayle, The Guardian — Kansas City is booming. Employers and investors have poured into the midwestern city since the recession. At least $1bn has gone into its sparkling new downtown, revitalized arts district and shiny new condos. So why is Sly James, its highly regarded outgoing mayor, so…
By Leo Vidal, PoliticusUSA — Nearly 200 black women leaders have sent a letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), criticizing them for “failure to protect“ Rep. Maxine Waters…
By Hazel Trice Edney — (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The Black church, among the most prosperous institutions in America, has long led movements for the spiritual, social and civic uplift of Black people. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, he had just launched the Poor People’s Movement, which quickly fizzled after his death. With this historic backdrop, the African Methodist Episcopal Church – with…
Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe — WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) – The Trump administration plans to revoke guidelines that encourage considering race in the college admissions process as…
TopIcs: Remembering Patrice Lumumba, “Elections Matter” Revisited. Guests: Maurice Carney (Friends of the Congo, Washington, D.C.), Earl Ofari Hutchinson (Commentator, Publisher, The Hutchinson Report, Los Angeles, CA) and Bill Fletcher (Author, Commentator, Labor/Social Justice Activist, Washington, D.C.).
By Ray Chickrie — Today, July 1, Suriname celebrates the 155th anniversary of the end of slavery, emancipation or Keti Kota. It is also known locally as Maspasi. Slavery came to an end in 1863 in Suriname, but prior to that enslaved Africans waged wars of liberation and freed themselves from bondage (Maroons) and signed treaties with the Dutch. The Netherlands signed peace treaties with the Nyduka (Akkan) in 1760,…
By Vanessa Romo, NPR — Congress’s three African-American senators introduced a bipartisan bill Friday to make lynching a federal crime. Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., drafted the bipartisan legislation, which defines the crime as “the willful act of murder by a collection of people assembled with the intention of committing an act of violence upon any person.” It also classifies lynching as a hate…
By Rob Urban and Bill Allison, Bloomberg — The biggest private prison operators, which have poured money into Republican coffers, stand to make a windfall from President Donald Trump’s “zero…
Experienced electoral organizer Jessica Byrd from the M4BL Electoral Justice Table talks with Organizing Upgrade editor Rishi Awatramani about the EJP strategy for electoral engagement… Rishi Awatramani interview with Jessica Byrd, Portside — In 2017, the Movement for Black Lives launched its Electoral Justice Project (EJP). The EJP is building a strategic political home with organizers from more than 50 Black Organizations around the country that are winning Black civic…
In one of the wealthiest US cities, the racial disparity in birth outcomes is stark: ‘Why isn’t this sounding a bigger alarm?’ By Leslie Casimir, The Guardian — Jasmine Ball was barely five months pregnant with twins when the labor pains jolted through her lower body. Rushed to the hospital, the doctors told her that her cervix had dilated completely. There was nothing they could do to stop the babies…
By Kehinde Andrews, Black Perspectives — In 1967, the Afro-Caribbean Self-Help Organisation (ACSHO), based in Birmingham, started one of the first Black supplementary schools in the UK, sparking off a movement that transformed how mainstream schools treated their Black children. Supplementary schools refer to voluntary education programs run by concerned parents, teachers, and community members because of the racism faced in the school system.
The 50-year-old anti-poverty movement has seen a revival in the era of Trump. By Teke Wiggin, HuffPost — When lifelong civil rights activist Louise Brown took the mic at a Washington, D.C., rally on Saturday, she had a stark message for the thousands of people assembled before her to protest poverty. “I’m 83 years old, and only the strong survive,” she shouted. In a call to arms, she recounted how…