By Nicholas Powers, Truthout — “There are seven white people on this stage talking about racial justice,” said former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg last night at the Democratic debate in South Carolina. The debate in Charleston quickly became a rhetorical tug-of-war between presidential candidates vying for Black votes. They fought over stop and frisk, loyalty to Obama and redlining. The high–stakes backdrop of the February 25 debate was the collapse of neoliberal politics in the face of a rising progressive wing led by Sen. Bernie…
By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson — After the Nevada caucuses, Bernie Sanders is now the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race. In South Carolina, the next primary, former Vice President…
Black Americans’ relocation back to the south is changing voting blocs and making Democratic races more competitive. This month, for the first time, South Carolina registered a million voters of color. By Kenya Evelyn, The Guardian — Najeema Davis Washington spent more than 15 years as a federal employee in Washington DC before she returned to Charleston, the city she left in 1996. She brought with her a progressive outlook…
An anti-African, anti-black-immigrant stance is shortsighted. As we celebrate Black History Month, we should not divide the black community. By Kevin Cokley, USA Today — Should African American/black identity be defined…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a colossal problem if he has any hope of ever becoming President Bloomberg. And he knows it. It’s…
By Herb Boyd — When Africans were forcibly brought to America, they worked at the points of production. And whether as a multitude of enslaved workers on small farms, large plantations, in mines or elsewhere, black laborers were vital cogs in creating wealth for their owners. On a national scale, enslaved black laborers provided a workforce vital for the development of the American republic by bringing wage-free economic success and…
Del. Wanika Fisher (D-Prince George’s) wants the state to consider reparations for ancestors of Maryland slaves. By Hannah Gaskill, Maryland Matters — Maryland’s 250-year history of legal slavery came to…
U.S. Civil Rights and Human Rights Groups Say Water is a Human Right — Express Solidarity with Struggle for Water Rights in Nigeria. February, 10, 2020, New York — The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) released a Statement today calling for a national and international movement to declare access to water a human right that should not be subject to profiteering by corporate interests. The Statement was released against the…
By Roy E. Finkenbine, HNN — The history of slavery in America is, to a great extent, the history of erasure. For most of the century and a half since…
This month is not only about commemorating our history but cementing and shaping our present-day legacy for future generations. By Derrick Johnson, president and CEO, NAACP — We find ourselves…
Authoritarian societies protect the powerful, not the poor or vulnerable, and Trump made that very clear. By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout — The ghost of Orwell has never been far…
‘This was supposed to be reparations’ Why is LA’s cannabis industry devastating black entrepreneurs?
Black merchants affected by the war on drugs are denied licenses and thrown into debt as white owners thrive. By Sam Levin, The Guardian — A Los Angeles government program set up to provide cannabis licenses to people harmed by the war on drugs has been plagued by delays, scandal and bureaucratic blunders, costing some intended beneficiaries hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. Black entrepreneurs and activists across LA told…