Category: National News

Universities and retirement plans are reaping profit from ACE Cash Express’ lending practices in poor communities. (Courtesy Photo) U.S. lawmakers and a body of national clergy gathered recently to demand universities and retirement plans divest their interest in ACE Cash Express – the nation’s largest payday lender. The Interfaith Payday Lending roundtable convened by U.S. […]

Congressman John Lewis delivers his remarks,Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, which included his experiences in Selma in 1965 on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis, was joined by Andrew Young, Dr. Joseph Lowery, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King III at the 50th Observance of the Struggle for the 1965 Voting Rights Act Luncheon at the […]

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a 2016 candidate for president. (AFRO File Photo) Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) were the main standouts of the 2016 presidential candidates at the Urban League convention on July 30 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Clinton came out swinging at Bush in […]

Cornell William Brooks, NAACP president, holds the hand of Rachel Quarterman, 7, while leading the “America’s Journey for Justice March” organized by the NAACP on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, in Selma, Ala. The 860 mile relay march is planned to go from Selma to Washington D.C. over the course of 40 days. (Albert Cesare/Montgomery Advertiser […]

Police and protesters square off outside the Ferguson Police Department, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo. Earlier in the day, the resignation of Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson was announced in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer. […]

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush (left) and Democratic presidential candidate . (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush ventured into historically Democratic territory on Friday to tell a predominantly-African American audience that the country’s decades-long efforts to fight poverty are failing and his record as Florida governor serves as […]

Francis Guess (Courtesy Photo) Nashville civil rights advocate, businessman and state commissioner Francis Guess has died. He was 69. Family friend Vincent Williams said Guess died at his home July 23rd. The cause of death was not yet known. Guess was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the Commission on Civil Rights in 1983. He […]

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Courtesy Photo) U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she wants to make the solitary confinement of juveniles in the United States illegal. On July 22, Lee (D-Texas) convened a congressional briefing on the conditions of youth confinement on Capitol Hill and said action is needed by the U.S. Congress to […]

Even as the nation commemorates the 50th anniversary of Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, and the 80th anniversary of Social Security, issues of race, class, and access remain recalcitrant barriers to elder security. Particularly among Blacks, living longer has often meant subsisting on meager funds and with limited material resources. The Social Security Act of […]

Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., attends a news conference Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) A longtime Philadelphia congressman, who was indicted July 29, paid off a campaign loan with charitable donations and federal grants, funneled campaign money to pay down his son’s student loan debt and disguised a lobbyist’s bribe as payment […]

“Saving Our Cities” is the focus of the 2015 National Urban League Conference which gathers at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from July 29 through Aug. 1. An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 persons are expected to convene for the annual conclave which often sets the tone for the civil […]