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News & Current Affairs

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Danny Glover

One city’s reparations program that could offer a blueprint for the nation

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

Evanston, Illinois, is levying a tax on newly legalised marijuana to fund projects benefiting African Americans in recognition of the enduring effects of slavery and the war on drugs By Eric Lutz, The Guardian — For years, Robin Rue Simmons watched Evanston, Illinois, “working hard” to resolve its racial disparities – but with little to show for its efforts. “Our gaps were widening,” the city alderman told the Guardian, citing the Chicago suburb’s…

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Deval Patrick

Deval Patrick to unveil reparations as part of black economic agenda

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

Reparations are popular with black Americans but opposed by most whites and divide Democrats. By Alexi McCammond, Axios — Deval Patrick supports developing a plan for the federal government to provide reparations to living descendants of slaves, a position he’ll make clear as part of an economic platform for black Americans he’s unveiling today, an aide tells Axios. Driving the news: The former Massachusetts governor, one of only two non-white candidates…

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Michael Bloomberg speaks at the Vernon Chapel American Methodist Episcopal Church in Tulsa, Okla.

Michael Bloomberg proposes multi-billion-dollar initiative to provide economic justice for black Americans

By News & Current Affairs

By Shant Shahrigian — Mike Bloomberg took to the site of historic race riots in Tulsa, Okla., on Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend to propose sweeping plans to redress the economic legacy of generations of discrimination against African Americans. In an initiative similar to calls for reparations for slavery, the Democratic presidential candidate proposed $70 billion in investment in the country’s “100 most…

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Doris Miller was awarded for his heroism during the Pearl Harbor attack.

Doris Miller to become first black sailor to have a Navy aircraft carrier named in his honor

By News & Current Affairs

A black mess attendant was a Pearl Harbor hero. Now an aircraft carrier will have his name. By Kim Bellware, The Washington Post — It was just before 8 a.m. aboard the USS West Virginia, anchored in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when the first torpedo hit. Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris Miller was deep into the day’s laundry when the blast sent one of his lieutenants racing to…

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Liverpool

Liverpool street sign plan to highlight city’s slavery links

By News & Current Affairs, Reparations

Liverpool could introduce plaques to give an “honest account” of places connected to the slave trade. By BBC News — Much of the city’s 18th Century wealth came from the trade involving British slavers transporting Africans across the Atlantic. Mayor Joe Anderson said paintings, street names and buildings in the city were “important parts of the historical record which should not be concealed”. He is calling for new signs to…

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