The latest U.S. jobs report could be good news for President Obama’s re-election campaign, experts say, but even better news for minority communities that have borne the brunt of a sluggish labor market. Overall unemployment dropped to 7.8 percent and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000 in September, according to the latest jobs summary […]
Author Archives: Zenitha Prince
Special to the AFRO
Posted inBaltimore News
Nov. 6 Ballot Demands Informed Voters
For Maryland voters, the choices on Nov. 6 won’t be limited to picking a favorite candidate for president or choosing the more recognizable name as the representative for Congress. With a slew of weighty referendum questions on the ballot, and an avalanche of propaganda alternately urging yes or no on those questions, this year’s electorate […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Kemba Smith Pradia Joins Drive to Restore Ex-Felon Voting Rights
For Blacks in the United States, the journey to the ballot box has always been a challenging one. And for millions of African Americans, who figure prominently among the nearly 6 million citizens who cannot vote due to felony disenfranchisement laws, the road to the polls remains a steep one. Kemba Smith Pradia, whose case […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Ga. Judge Clears Motion Possibly Releasing Black Homeowner Serving Life Sentence
John McNeil, a Georgia African American man who is serving a life sentence for shooting and killing a White trespasser on his property, could go free after a Georgia Superior Court judge ruled Sept. 25 that ineffective legal counsel undercut his claim of a justified killing. Baldwin County Judge Hulane George ruled in favor of […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Congressional Democrats Push Back Against Voter ID Movement
Democratic lawmakers are fighting back against a slew of Republican-sponsored laws that would require voters to present government-issued photo identification before casting their ballots. Fourteen members of Congress, led by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), have introduced the America Votes Act of 2012, H.R. 6419, which would trump the state-passed laws by allowing voters to sign […]
Posted inNational News
Romney Repeats ‘Freeloaders’ Gaffe, Dismisses 47% of Voters
Political experts have mixed reviews on whether Mitt Romney’s “off-the-cuff” statements describing President Obama’s supporters as irresponsible freeloaders who don’t pay taxes will be the death of his campaign. “His campaign is pretty much over,” Lester Spence, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, said after Romney Sept. 17 stood by remarks made in […]
Posted inNational News
Obama Holds Narrow Lead Two Months Before Election
From where Democrats sit, things are looking pretty good for their chances of holding on to the White House after the general election in November. Coming out of the party’s national convention in North Carolina last week, President Obama received a spike in the polls, with at least one survey giving him a six percentage-point […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Romney Black Outreach: Thin, Hollow, Political Scholars Say
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s outreach to African-American voters is half-hearted at best and, at worse, a ploy to appeal to White voters, Black political experts say. “This is one of the least visible outreach efforts of any Republican campaign,” said Lorenzo Morris, chair of the political science department at Howard University. Jason Johnson, a […]
Posted inNational News
Voters May Face ‘Ballot Bullies’
A swarm of right-wing loyalists with intimidation on their minds can be expected to descend on polling places in minority neighborhoods this November, two public interest groups warned government officials Monday. In a new report titled, “Bullies at the Ballot Box,” Demos and Common Cause describe campaigns by conservative groups—particularly the tea party-affiliated True the […]
Posted inNational News
Georgia Case Turns Stand Your Ground on Its Head, Say Civil Rights Leaders
The NAACP is demanding an overturned guilty verdict and the release from prison of John McNeil, an African-American man from Georgia whose life sentence for murder, advocates say, is an example of the unequal application of “Stand Your Ground” laws. Some of the organization’s leaders visited the convicted man and met with prison officials Sept. […]
Posted inNational News
Federal Court Rejects Texas Voter ID LawHolder’s Justice Dept Prevails
A federal court recently rejected Texas’ new voter ID law, saying the measure would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of minority voters. The three-judge panel made its decision against the law, SB-14, after a week-long trial, during which it heard live testimony from 20 witnesses, including election lawyers, Texas state legislators, civil rights leaders, and experts […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Michelle Obama, Fictional Semi-Nude on Magazine Cover, Ignites Critics
A Spanish magazine’s depiction of Michelle Obama as a slave with one breast exposed has stirred up an old controversy about the depiction of Black women in popular culture. Taken from the “Famous Nudes” series done by artist Karine Percheron-Daniels, the August cover of Fuera de Serie has critics debating whether the image choice was […]
