Author Archives: George E. Curry

After six weeks of testimony, a major trial to determine whether Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been routinely denied funding and other needed resources that would have made them “comparable and competitive” with White universities in the state is expected to end this week, with a ruling expected by this summer. […]

How can you tell when politicians are lying? Answer: When they moves their lips. Until now, that had been considered a joke. Today, however, that seems especially true when listening to Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination. Thanks to FactCheck.org, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center the University of Pennsylvania; PolitiFact, the Pulitzer-Prize winning […]

Around this time every year, shortly before I leave to visit my mother in Augusta, Ga. for Christmas, I attend a party at the home of Pat and Ron Walters in Silver Spring, Md. I attended the annual party Saturday night with one noticeable difference – it was held without Ron, an enormously talented strategist […]

With the next election 11 months away, President Obama has begun sharpening his populist message and drawing a sharp contrast between his vision for America and the Republican alternative. Obama’s speech last week in Osawatomie, Kansas, provided an example of how he plans to attack his Republican opposition. “There is a certain crowd in Washington […]

Although more African-Americans live in the South than any other region, Blacks elected to state legislative bodies there have become virtually powerless as those bodies have shifted from Democratic to Republican control. That’s the conclusion reached in a Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies research brief titled, “Resegregation in Southern Politics?” by senior research […]

Al Sharpton has patterned his career so closely after the Jesse Jackson model that he could be justifiably charged with identity theft. Like Jackson, he began wearing a Martin Luther King medallion around his neck. Like Jackson, he started his own civil rights organization. Like Jackson, he ran for president of the United States. Like […]

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. – Genesis 4:8 In Biblical times, Cain slew Abel. Today, another Cain — Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain — can’t put to death the allegations by […]

After decades of trying to ease voting restrictions that suppress voter turnout in the U.S., already among the lowest among industrialized nations, Republican-led state legislators and GOP governors have quickly implemented or proposed a series of changes aimed at reducing Black political clout. Among the recent developments to limit Black voter participation: * At least […]

Ray Charles sings about Georgia being on his mind. But as Troy Davis was laid to rest Saturday, Georgia was also on the minds of distraught death penalty opponents who saw him executed on the basis of questionable evidence and despite an array of witnesses who had recanted their original testimony. Georgia has been at […]

We are reminded almost daily that President Obama’s favorable poll numbers are at an all-time low. While that is unmistakably true, that’s only half of the picture. Let’s first take a look at the numbers. A Gallup poll pegged Obama’s August monthly approval rating at 41 percent, the lowest of his administration. However, Gallup found […]

Any compromise President Obama reaches with Congress will fail to significantly reduce Black unemployment unless the plan is crafted to address joblessness in the three industries where African-American workers are concentrated – government jobs, education and health services. According to a University of California-Berkeley Labor Center research brief titled, “Black Workers and the Public Sector,” […]

In the hoopla surrounding Sunday’s dedication of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. statue on the National Mall in Washington, Harry E. Johnson Sr., the visionary and fundraising engine behind the project, will finally get his due. Placing Dr. King on the Mall was a project of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, but it was Johnson, […]