George E. Curry, is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) The 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer is being commemorated this week in Mississippi and it provides the perfect backdrop to reflect on the transformation of not only Mississippi, then the deadliest state in the nation, but the entire region. As I […]
Author Archives: George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Posted inWashington D.C. News
Men Want ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Expanded to Include Black Females
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NNPA) – More than 200 African American men, ranging from a taxi driver to university professors, sent a letter to President Obama, May 27, urging him to expand his Black male initiative to include Black girls and women, saying they were “surprised and disappointed” that the president had sought to include only half […]
Posted inWashington D.C. News
NAACP Presidential Selection Process Again Mired in Controversy
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – A search firm hired by the NAACP ranked the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, as the top candidate five years ago to become president and CEO of the NAACP. But Haynes wasn’t the favorite of Julian Bond, then chairman of the board of […]
Posted inCommentary
Racist NBA Owner has Fouled Out
NBA Commissioner Alan Silver, who replaced David Stern just two months ago, did what we’ve all been waiting for – he showed Los Angeles Clippers bigoted owner Donald Sterling the nearest exit and told him not to look back. On Tuesday, Silver banned Sterling from the NBA for life and fined him $2.5 million, the […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Black Press Critic Clint Wilson Needs a ‘Reality Check’
WILMINGTON, N.C. (NNPA) – Howard University Journalism Professor Clint C. Wilson II’s broad criticism of the Black Press proves that he needs a “reality check,” said Ben Chavis, leader of a group of 1970s activists known as the Wilmington Ten. “There’s a distinguished journalism professor in Washington,” Chavis said, referring to Wilson. “He recently said […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
State of Black America: Growing Income Inequality
The wealth gap between African Americans and Whites has expanded in recent years and is not likely to narrow without significant reductions in Black unemployment and changes in a system that favors the wealthy over poor and middle class Americans, according the National Urban League’s 38th annual State of Black America report entitled “One Nation […]
Posted inCommentary
Another Florida Man Gets Away with Murder
As we approach the second anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s murder in Sanford, Fla., justice again has been shortchanged in the Sunshine State. It was incredulous that George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman and wannabe cop, was found not guilty of murder after killing the unarmed Black teenager who had visited a nearby convenience store to purchase […]
Posted inNational News
Obama Hopes to Sidestep Congress to have ‘a Year of Action’
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – With a largely uncooperative, highly-partisan Congress headed into a mid-term election, President Obama declared in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night that he will have ‘a year of action’ by expanding economic opportunity through executive orders and other action that do not require legislative approval. “I’m eager to work with […]
Posted inCommentary
‘If I Dated Black Girls’
Last Friday, I gave the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech at the University of North Alabama in Florence. I was glowingly introduced by my niece, Rachel Gandy, who is a senior at UNA. I told the audience that having grown up in segregated Tuscaloosa, Ala., how satisfying it was to see “the […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Proposed Tobacco Settlement Excludes Black Media
The U.S. Justice Department and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund have reached an agreement with the four major tobacco companies requiring them to spend millions across major media as part of a settlement for their misrepresentation of the hazards of smoking—but the companies will not have to make a single purchase from a Black print […]
Posted inCommentary
‘Race War’ at Fox News
In 2013, race still mattered – especially at Fox News. According to MediaMatters, the watchdog group, last year was a banner period for race-baiting at Fox. “Viewers who spent 2013 absorbed in Fox News might be under the impression that an all-out race war has erupted across the nation this year, thanks to the network’s […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Past and Present Converge at Mandela’s Burial
QUNU, South Africa (NNPA)—With a rich mixture of ceremonial military pomp and ancient tribal customs, Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president, was buried here Dec. 15 in the village of his youth, culminating 10 days of national mourning. Mandela died on Dec. 5 at age 95. The Nobel Prize-winner, in accordance with his […]