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Break the siege on Gaza NOW!
June 6, 2011
Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human will be leaving from unspecified ports in the Mediterranean in late June to break the siege on Gaza carrying about a thousand journalists, teachers, students, attorneys, human rights activists, members of parliament and others from 22 countries.
New Orleans news from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
May 16, 2011
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund Project Vote and New Orleans attorney Ronald Wilson filed a complaint in federal court alleging that Louisiana is disenfranchising minority and low-income voters by failing to offer them the opportunity to register to vote as required by the National Voter Registration Act.
The Black mayor of Waterproof, Louisiana, has spent nearly a year behind bars without bail
March 25, 2011
A legal dispute in the rural Louisiana town of Waterproof has attracted the attention of national civil rights organizations and activists. Waterproof Mayor Bobby Higginbotham has been held without bail since May of 2010.
Global and local people power unites
March 16, 2011
Crying “Have a Heart, Save Our Homes,” a large Bay Area coalition marched in a driving rain from City Hall to the San Francisco Federal Building – Causa Justa/Just Cause, San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE and many more.
‘Losing Just the Same’: Classic 1966 film on West Oakland
February 22, 2011
This documentary reflects on the lives and aspirations of a West Oakland family, “a story of people caught in a lifelong struggle between their hopes and their abilities and their discovery that no matter how hard they try they will be losing just the same.”
Revolutionary and Gangsta: an interview wit Aisha Sekhmet
February 19, 2011
Revolutionary gangsta rap artist Aisha Sekhmet is bold, passionate and intelligent. Check out this fiery much needed newcomer to the rap world in her own words.
Power to the people: A welcome prison victory in Ohio
January 23, 2011
Although on a very small scale (which by no means diminishes the deed), we, the people, have wrought a revolution – “a sudden and momentous change in a situation” – and accomplished in 12 days what the powers that be have repeatedly told us would never happen.
Dr. King and the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott
January 17, 2011
Although America’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution are premised on the principles of democracy, the historical treatment of America’s citizens of color is replete with racial dichotomies. Today’s youth need to know that Dr. King was only 25 when he began to fight back with the year-long Montgomery bus boycott.
Learning from shattered Haiti’s year of struggle
January 12, 2011
A year ago this month, Haiti was flattened by a seismic catastrophe. It was hardly the only tragedy that the tiny nation has faced in its 220-year history as the first republic born of a slave revolt.
Dedication to Dr. Margaret Burroughs
December 20, 2010
Dr. Margaret Burroughs, poet and activist, teacher in schools and prisons, and founder of the internationally renowned DuSable Museum, passed Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010. She is remembered by Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee.
My thoughts on ‘Showdown in Desire: The Black Panthers take a stand in New Orleans’
February 19, 2010
Black History Month Special: “Big Man,” a founder of the Black Panther Party and the first editor of the Black Panther newspaper, reviews an excellent new book telling the story of the shootout in September 1970 between the Panthers and the New Orleans PD in the Desire public housing development through the words of the people who lived it.
The Village Bottoms Open House: an interview Duane Deterville of the Village Bottoms Cultural District
October 26, 2009
Duane Deterville is a dedicated organizer in the Village Bottoms Cultural District in West Oakland and is the host of their Oct. 29 open house. The SF Bay View thinks that this open house is important because the Village Bottoms is a collective of Black business owners and homeowners who are working together to protect their property and institutions and to generate business. Listen to Duane in his own words …
Racial profiling briefly acknowledged … now what?
September 7, 2009
Blacks and Latinos in the United States have long complained of police harassment and racial profiling, but no one paid much attention until July 16 this year, when the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates at his home on a “disorderly conduct” charge – read for being an uppity Negro or forgetting his place.
Let’s get New Orleanians back home
September 3, 2009
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., wrapped up two days of hearings by the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, which she chairs, by focusing on the status and availability of affordable, quality public housing due to the near total demolition of the “Big Four” public housing developments in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. After the hearing, Congresswoman Waters, panelists and other guests participated in a bus tour of the Big Four sites – B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, Lafitte and St. Bernard – and visited the future site of a new public housing development in Iberville, which may be the next development to be demolished and redeveloped.
My self, my daughter: A tribute to Dr. Kaire Poole-Besses
June 24, 2009
We often tell our children, “I want you to do better than I did. I want you to make a difference and I want you to be more financially sustained than I am.” My name is Betty McGee and I earned a doctorate in business administration in 2004. The journey for me was five years of hard work, sacrifice and to some degree doubt around my ability to complete the work.
Media as a weapon: New Orleans’ 2-Cent
June 4, 2009
“Malcolm X would love to make mixtapes, have those out on the streets. The same reasons they boycotted and had protests in that era are our reasons too. We’re coming from that same mindset, but we’re using new tools, trying to get our inheritance.”
Should Oakland and other U.S. cities replace police with armed mercenaries?
May 11, 2009
The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons and certainly with the U.S. military/ national security/ intelligence apparatus.
New Orleanians gear up for long overdue rebuilding
January 7, 2009
Neighborhood planning and oversight on needed infrastructure and services will keep the focus on regional needs and local job creation and work related income for workers, with job-oriented training and backup services like child care and transitional housing.
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?
Katrina Pain Index: New Orleans three years later
August 24, 2008
Zero apartments currently being built to replace the 963 public housing apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the St. Bernard Housing Development. 2.6 billion FEMA dollars for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered. Renowned people’s attorney Bill Quigley has compiled a shocking “pain index” caused by the continuing ethnic cleansing of New Orleans.