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…
By The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA ) — What we witnessed in the Starbucks situation was White Supremacy plain and simple. It affected most, if not…
By Sarah Cwiek, Michigan Radio — One Detroit family celebrated getting a new home Thursday, as they also called for other families like them to receive similar compensation as victims of what they call “illegal” foreclosures. The Bonnett family lost their home to property tax foreclosure in 2015. Nearly one in four Detroit properties was tax-foreclosed between 2011 and 2015. Some researchers, led by Illinois Institute of Technology and visiting…
BECKLES… to visit London, United Kingdom, this week to participate in discussions concerning the Windrush generation By The Jamaica Observer — Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (The…
By Shaliza Hassanali, The Guardian — It’s not too late for T&T to establish itself as a leader in medicinal marijuana. This was the view shared yesterday by Prof Jayaraj Jayaraman,…
The People’s Organization for Progress is hosting the March and Rally for Reparations in Newark Saturday, June 23, at noon Participants will gather at the Lincoln Monument between Springfield Avenue…