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The coming Mehserle sentencing: Redrawing the line on ‘outside agitators’
November 1, 2010
With the upcoming sentencing of Johannes Mehserle on Nov. 5, the rebellions of January 2009 that brought about his arrest could very well be set off once more. And once again we expect to hear the mantra blaming “outside agitators.”
Republican candidates ignore the Black vote while the Democrats continue to take it for granted
September 6, 2010
Very little if any advertising has been done in Black newspapers or with Black radio stations in an attempt to reach Black voters via the Black media. The Black press connects Blacks around the world. Their power and influence is unmatched, unchallenged and unquestioned.
Good Americans: The dark side of the Pullman Porters Union
September 6, 2010
As we celebrate the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, America’s first African America labor union, let us not forget that African American rail workers were instrumental in organizing not only the sleeping and chair car porters, but the dining car workers as well.
Shirley Sherrod and the dark history of Baker County
August 6, 2010
It was cowardly and wrong for the U.S. government to force Ms. Sherrod to resign without hearing her side, without understanding the whole story, without showing the slightest interest in fairness or due process. Here was Baker County rearing its ugly history all over again, 70 years later.
Racism in schools
July 5, 2010
In Alabama, a teacher uses a hypothetical assassination of President Barack Obama as an example in a geometry lesson. A North Georgia teacher allowed four students to don mock Ku Klux Klan outfits for a final project in a high school social studies class.
Latinos, Blacks join fight for civil rights in Arizona
May 23, 2010
A united front of Black and Latino Arizonans mobilized against a state law that they see as a threat to their civil rights. Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law on Friday, making Arizona the first state in the nation to make it a crime for a person to be undocumented.
Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height
May 10, 2010
President Obama delivered the eulogy Thursday for our beloved Dr. Dorothy Height. Dr. Height never did receive the mainstream recognition that she more than deserved, so I am proud that my president lifted her legacy for all America and the world to see and honor.
Michelle Alexander’s ‘The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness’
May 6, 2010
Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” (published by The New Press, 2010) looks at the invisible people and the invisible birdcage that keeps the masses of Black people locked in and alienated from society – the targets of the War on Drugs.
There’s a new sheriff in town: If Blacks don’t work, nobody works!
January 27, 2010
The Bay Area Black Builders and friends shut down a pre-bid conference for a library in the heart of Hunters Point. This action was designed to send the mayor of San Francisco a message: If Black people do not work in Hunters Point, no one works here.
The struggle ain’t over
December 31, 2009
The struggle ain’t over. Those who’ve given in to the euphoria of the moment need only speak with young people in the hood. Try telling them how far we’ve come from the lynchings, trained attack dogs, our leaders murdered and shut up in these pens on trumped up charges. Those youngsters will tell you that’s the same shit they see every day.
‘House Keys Not Handcuffs’: Homeless families denied a home even for their convergence
December 22, 2009
Communities from up and down the West Coast that had planned to converge in San Francisco to demonstrate our immense energy and BE THE CHANGE this administration needs to do what is right have been denied a previously approved permit to gather – why? on the grounds that the rally will be too large. Is this a re-run of the rise and fall of the Poor People’s Campaign’s Resurrection City on the Washington Mall in 1968?
Wall Street Reform Act, a ‘big, big deal for Black America,’ passes, thanks to Congressional Black Caucus members led by Maxine Waters
December 18, 2009
“I applaud and welcome the passage of H.R. 4173, The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” declared Congresswoman Barbara Lee, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), several of whose members, led by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, were responsible for the bill’s key provisions. “Nobody has more at stake here than Black America,” says Kai Wright, senior writer for The Root.
Christmas Day in a Louisiana dungeon
December 25, 2008
Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are about to begin their 37th year in the dungeon of the old slave plantation, Angola. A crucifixion. Where is the public outrage that will resurrect them?
