Teacher unions in Florida and Georgia are fighting against censorship of Black history in schools, with the Florida Education Association and the Georgia Federation of Teachers advocating for students and standing up against efforts to suppress knowledge that empowers Black communities.
Author Archives: Special to the AFRO from #WordinBlack
Posted inOpinion
Black Vote Black Power: Kamala Harris for President
President Joe Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee for re-election, shifting the momentum away from the Republican Party and towards the Democrats, who must now unite behind Harris to defeat Donald Trump.
Posted inCommentary
Trump Fried Chicken
One Black woman at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta expressed support for Donald Trump, but this is not representative of the Black community as a whole, and Trump is a panderer-in-chief who is trying to sell himself to White people.
Posted in#Education, Word In Black
Teachers’ “Black tax”: Longer hours, lower pay, better attitude
Black teachers have higher morale than White teachers, possibly due to their commitment to community empowerment, racial uplift, and liberation, and their willingness to work longer hours for less pay.
Posted in#Education
Another downside of book bans: They stunt reading ability
By Joseph WilliamsWord In Black For years, as test scores fell and teachers fretted, educators and analysts rang the alarm: the U.S. is facing a grade-school reading crisis. If left unaddressed, they say, Black children could fall even further behind. Now, college professors are sounding an alarm of their own. They say college students are […]
Posted in#Education
SCOTUS punts on race and schools case
By Joseph Williams Word In Black Less than a year after the Supreme Court voided race-based admissions policies in top colleges, diversity advocates breathed a sigh of relief when the high court passed on hearing a challenge to an initiative to bring more Black students to an elite Virginia magnet school. But experts warn that the […]
Posted inWord In Black
New tools empower Black communities on the frontlines of climate change
By Willy BlackmoreWord in Black It’s no exaggeration to say that nearly all of LaPlace, Louisiana, flooded when Hurricane Ida hit the small town just upriver from New Orleans as a category 4 storm two years ago. Almost 60 percent of the 7,000 homes in the greater Saint John the Baptist Parish that are covered […]
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: 60 years after the March on Washington, let’s recommit to the fight for justice
By Fred Redmond Sixty years ago this month, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered perhaps his most famous speech to a quarter of a million people. He told the crowd that he dreamt of a day where “this nation will rise up and live […]
Posted inWord In Black
March on Washington lit a fire in teens that still burns decades later
By Gwen McKinney Sarah Davidson of North Little Rock, Arkansas, was in fourth grade when the teenagers who would be dubbed “The Little Rock Nine” courageously integrated Central High School. “Many Black people were scared,” Davidson said of the 1957 campaign. “But they put me on the path I never stopped traveling. Even at 9 […]
Posted inHBCU
Phylicia Rashad Resigns as Howard University Fine Arts Dean
By Amaka WatsonHouston Defender August 14, 2023 Prominent actress, producer, and Houston native Phylicia Rashad announced her decision to step down from her role as dean of the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University after the 2023-2024 academic year. Reports indicate that Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick conveyed this news […]
Posted inCoronavirus
COVID-19 funding pries open a door to improving air quality in schools
By Liz Szabo. Kaiser Permanente, For Word in Black Many U.S. schools were in dire need of upgrades — burdened by leaking pipes, mold, and antiquated heating systems — long before the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the importance of indoor ventilation in reducing the spread of infectious disease. The average U.S. school building is […]
Posted inNational News
#WordinBlack: Juneteenth and America’s racial soap opera
By David Carr, WordinBlack On June 19, the United States will celebrate Juneteenth for the second time as a federal holiday. But for Black America, Juneteenth has long been seen as the true celebration of freedom for enslaved Africans in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863, but it was […]