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Activism

The Outsider Democrats Who Built the Blue Wave

By Commentaries/Opinions

Grassroots activists have organized a movement stronger than Obama’s, and the midterm elections were just the beginning. By Micah L. Sifry, The New Republic — On Saturday, November 3, three days before the midterms, 200 volunteers gathered in Modena, New York, to canvass for Antonio Delgado, an African American lawyer and first-time congressional candidate. A local field staffer, a cheery young man named Todd, told me that so many people…

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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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James Forten

This Black Activist Was One of the Richest Men in Early America

By Editors' Choice

A Black sailmaker was helping to lead the anti-slavery movement long before it was popular in America. By Sean Braswell, OZY — In the spring of 1842, several thousand Philadelphians poured into the streets for one of the largest funerals in the city’s history. It was a remarkable sight: An interracial procession that included everyone from poor Black laborers to wealthy White merchants to sea captains and shippers. On that…

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Cori Bush is running for Congress in Missouri, aiming to defeat a lawmaker who has served in the House for 17 years.

The next Ocasio-Cortez: will these candidates pull Democrats to the left?

By News & Current Affairs

The New York activist’s upset primary victory has fueled hopes – and boosted funding – for progressives in Democratic races across the US By Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian — One day in mid-June, Cori Bush, a nurse and activist mounting a progressive primary challenge against a well-established Democratic congressman in Missouri, took a look at her fundraising totals. She had raised $9 during the previous 24 hours. On the evening of…

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Demonstrators prepare to march to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, July 17, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California.

We Founded Black Lives Matter 5 Years Ago Today. We’re Still Going.

By Editors' Choice

By Patrisse Cullors, HuffPost — Right after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in July 2013, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and I were devastated. We’d been following the proceedings closely. We’d watched the media criminalize 17-year-old Trayvon and humiliate his family to justify his cold-blooded murder presumably because his assailant was white-presenting. Still, we were sucker-punched by the acquittal. We stood perplexed; hadn’t we elected our first black president? Yet it was clear;…

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A woman protests at a town-hall meeting being held by Thomas Homan, acting director of enforcement for ICE, in Sacramento, California, March 28, 2017.

Against Civility

By Commentaries/Opinions

You can’t fight injustice with decorum. By Sarah Leonard, The Nation — Michelle Obama’s 2016 declaration that “when they go low, we go high” quickly became the unofficial motto of the anti-Trump resistance. But instead of being used against Trump himself, this attitude is now being wielded against protesters confronting his administration’s obscene immigration-detention policies. Even in the face of family separations, a racist travel ban, and overt, violent white…

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In this March 24, 2018 file photo, protesters fill Pennsylvania Avenue, as seen from the Newseum, during the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control in Washington. Rachel Einwohner, a Purdue University sociology professor, says, “With the rise of social media, it’s definitely a lot easier for people to mobilize more quickly and you don’t necessarily need to have one charismatic leader like Dr. King, who had almost some kind of magical quality… But you still do need some powerful message that really resonates with a lot of people.”

Social media is the new heart of political protests

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Sharon Cohen — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. marching arm-in-arm with other civil rights activists. Cesar Chavez hoisting a picket sign in a farm workers’ strike. Gloria Steinem rallying other feminists for equal rights. During the 1960s and into the 1970s, amid the turbulence of protests for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, every movement seemed to have a famous face — someone at a podium or at the front of a march who possessed a charismatic style, soaring oratory and an inspiring message.

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