Author Archives: Zenitha Prince

Desiline Victor, the 102-year-old voter who received a standing ovation during President Obama’s State of the Union address, sent a letter to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia March 12 rebuking his characterization of the renewed Voting Rights Act as the “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Victor wrote that she was “shocked” by Scalia’s statements, which were […]

President Obama’s March 18 nomination of Justice Department official Thomas Perez to be his new secretary of Labor has put GOP lawmakers and conservative media personalities into an uproar. Among the slights were the comments of Rush Limbaugh, who compared Perez to the “grand kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan” and the late Venezuelan President […]

(Updated 3/22/2013) The Congressional Black Caucus became 43 members strong with the addition March 18 of interim Sen. William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.). Cowan joined Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in the U. S. Senate, marking the first time two African-Americans have served simultaneously in that congressional body. Scott, however, a Tea Party favorite, chose not to […]

Just in time for Women’s History Month, Wells Fargo & Co. announced March 11 that it will lend a total of $55 billion to women-owned businesses in the United States by the year 2020. “Women-owned businesses are among America’s fastest growing segments, and we are honored to support their role in shaping the future of […]

The Congressional Black Caucus this week scolded President Obama about his White male-dominated cabinet. The president’s second term in the White House began amid a cacophony of criticism that the president had surrounded himself mostly with White men and not enough women and minorities. In January, CBC Chair Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) wrote the president […]

The NAACP and other human rights groups are slamming Bloomberg Businessweek for a recent cover, which they have called “vile” and “racially offensive.” Illustrating the issue’s main story about the return of aggressive mortgage lending products, the cover depicts four minorities drowning in a house overflowing with cash. The headline reads: “The “Great American Housing […]

In the ongoing discussions about immigration Black immigrants continue to be largely unseen and unheard, scholars, activists and others say. But, the Congressional Black Caucus has vowed to ensure that Black immigrants are given a place in the current conversation. “Black immigrants have contributed a great deal to our economy and culture, and the Congressional […]

It was fall 1849, and Araminta Harriet Tubman, a slave, was on the run. “I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other,” Tubman later said of her decision to escape […]