Category: Commentary

Cornell William Brooks Freddie Gray wasn’t the only person to die at the hands of the police in April. Before Mr. Gray suffered three broken vertebrae during the course of his arrest by Baltimore police, 17-year-old Justus Howell was fatally shot by an unidentified officer in Zion, Ill. Like the death of Mr. Gray, Mr. […]

George E. Curry I recently attended my grandson Austin Ragland’s graduation from pre-school in Buford, Ga. Yes, you read correctly – pre-school. It’s never too soon to begin celebrating academic achievement, as his graduation from pre-school attests. So, PaPa was excited about going to Austin’s graduation ceremony and seeing him don a cap and gown […]

Moses J. Newson Updated June 1 2015 What if during America’s Civil War President Abraham Lincoln had headed a government legally loaded with confederate officials and his Union army had included thousands of confederate loyalists. Under that scenario, the confederates seeking by any means – violent and diplomatic – to overthrow the central government, would […]

Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. Hip-hop culture is about transformation. It is more than a global genre of music. Hip-hop is a transcendent cultural phenomena that speaks to the soul, mind, body and spirit of what it means to dare to change the world into a better place. Hip-hop is not just about acquiring funds or […]

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson “Project Head Start” was launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson on May 18, 1965. Originally designed as an eight week summer demonstration project, Head Start has expanded into an array of preschool programs that provide children from low-income families with a comprehensive program that prepares them for successful entry into kindergarten, […]

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq., President/CEO National Congress of Black Women Sometimes in the Black community, we’re so concerned about feeding our families, paying the rent and figuring out other essential things that we don’t take the time to think about the environment and how it impacts us—but we must begin not only thinking about […]

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq., President, National Congress of Black Women. (Updated 5/23/2015) Currently, there is an ongoing case that is underway in the World Bank’s Administrative Tribunal involving an African litigant who wanted to introduce a DNA test result to establish that blacks are human and should be treated as such by the World […]

Congressman Elijah Cummings This year Senator Elizabeth Warren and I have teamed up to launch a series of investigations — the Middle Class Prosperity Project — in order to focus greater congressional attention upon the bread and butter issues that matter the most to our nation’s working families. In February, we examined the harsh reality […]

Lee A. Daniels The Republican Party doesn’t have a lunatic fringe. It has a lunatic center: a core bloc of White voters and officeholders whose extreme conservatism leads them to indulge again and again in outlandish conspiracy theories and, more seriously, proposed and enacted legislation of disgraceful callousness. The past few weeks have offered two […]

Sen. Catherine Pugh As the light continues to shine on Baltimore it is an opportunity for us to show the world how we transform broken down neighbors and the lives of many of the individuals living in them. There is no getting around the number of boarded up houses that still exist in our city […]

Years ago I had stacks upon stacks of CDs. Most of them I bought, a few were given to me by friends and some of them were sent to me by record labels when I wrote about the music industry. When I wanted to listen to something, I would stare at the bookshelf on which […]

George H. Lambert, Jr. Of all the coverage of the disturbance in Baltimore that came in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death, the item that caught my attention the most was CNN’s coverage of the powerful African American women in charge of that city. Howard University alumna Stephanie Elam has authoritatively treated such recent issues […]