-
A Call to Action to Ensure That Our Community Is Counted
The year 2020 has felt like a decade, and we are only two-thirds of the way through it. This year was already slated to be packed with important moments: the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the presidential election in the fall, and of course, a host of weddings, births, graduations and other important moments in oneās…
-
Police Reforms Must Include Reparations for Those Living Through the Trauma of Police Violence
When Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by then-New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014, his daughter Erica Garner immediately became an activist of the highest caliber. She organized marches, wrote articles, and stood up to demand a conversation with President Obama at the presidential town hall on race…
-
Progressive Jamaal Bowman Defeats 16-Term Incumbent Eliot Engel
We told yāall earlier that the middle school principal would win. Now, after a lengthy vote count, itās official.
-
Civil Rights Pioneer Rev. C.T. Vivian Dies at 95
The Rev. Cordy Tindell Vivianāa product of the Midwest who helped make history in the Southādied on Friday morning at his home in Atlanta of natural causes at the age of 95, The Associated Press reports. Born July 30, 1924, in Howard County, Mo., as a child he moved with his mother to Macomb, Ill.,…
-
The Genius of Resilience: Toward a New, Black National Convention
Imagine itās 2070. History classes all over the U.S. teach the 2020 Black Lives Matter Uprisings and the national campaign to defund police. Students are shocked to learn about police officers who once killed Black people. For these young people, public safety means community and skilled professionals coming together to resolve problems peacefully and everyone…
-
Mike Espy: With the Confederate Emblem Gone, I Look Forward to Seeing a New Flag Fly Over Mississippi
Itās taken a long time, but change is coming to Mississippi: our state flagāwith its archaic symbol of the confederacyāis finally coming down. Unlike the flags that commonly fly over other states, our flag was never intended to unite and uplift. It was designed to perpetuate a longstanding division among our citizens. It did not…
-
The Fight for Our Collective Liberation
When black people and our allies take to the streets tonight in protestāas we have on previous nights past and as we will on nights to comeāwe will be calling for justice. Justice for our community means justice for George Floyd. Justice for our community means justice for Breonna Taylor. And justice for our community…
-
Jaime Harrison: How Do I Tell My Black Sons That This Could Be Them?
Minneapolis, Minn.; Louisville, Ky.; Brunswick, Ga. These are the latest cities turned inside out because of the killing of innocent black men and women by members of law enforcement. Rightly, the outrage and the pain have spread to every corner of the nation, including cities and communities here in South Carolina. This pain is chronic,…
-
Little Richard, a Founder of Rock 'n' Roll, Has Died at 87
āI should be better recognized today for sure,ā Little Richard said in an August 2010 interview with the Wall Street Journal. āI am the beginning. I am the originator.ā And indeed, the outrageous performer with the wild falsetto and pounding keyboards ushered in a new sound in the 1950s that combined rock ānā roll with…
-
Maybe We Don't Celebrate DC's Emancipation Day Because We're Not Actually Free
Today, April 16, marks the date 158 years ago, when Washington, D.C., became the only American jurisdiction to end slavery by paying $1 million in ransom to slaveholders to free the 3,100 people enslaved in the nationās capital. This holiday may be D.C.ās best kept secret. Public commemorations have been shrinking every year. Perhaps we…
