Category: Commentary

It now appears that, beginning March 1, Republican resistance to the President’s strategy for getting our economic house in order could well take our economy on a painful toboggan ride. We can avoid this dangerous slide – but only if the will of the American people makes itself felt on Capitol Hill. On March 1, […]

A decade before Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, police dragged Bayard Rustin off a bus in Tennessee for the same act of protest. When pressed about why he was resisting segregation, Rustin gestured to a young White boy seated at the front of the bus. […]

Dr. Ben Carson, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner and legendary neurosurgeon, is now in the spotlight for his keynote address to the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 7. It’s not brain surgery to figure out why. Most notable was his criticism of Obamacare, one of the worst federal laws in decades, and one which, before […]

On Friday, February 15, 2013, the Baltimore City Democratic State Central Committee -45th District (BCDCC) convened at the Oliver Community Center to select a candidate to assume the seat held Del. Hattie Harrison, a longtime political stalwart in East Baltimore, who died Jan. 28. Ten candidates interviewed for the position, including three who are members […]

America, in the years immediately following World War II, began to emerge into an era of rapidly expanding economic growth and social opportunity. All across the nation, veterans and their families were moving into new suburban communities and seizing the promise of a new American prosperity. But, for the Negro veteran, America seemed determined to […]

This year, we are celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. As African Americans, we are pleased that this country has progressed from the forced enslavement of our race to the removal of the Jim Crow laws and practices. We are also celebrating the reelection […]

In my community, it seems as if almost every day is a gun murder day. The grieving families and the funeral processions run like clockwork on their journeys to our cemeteries. My own family has been forced to endure this suffering. In America’s inner cities, suburbs and small towns, gun murders take more than 11,000 […]

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – After laying out a progressive agenda for his second term in his inaugural address, President Obama followed up Tuesday night with a series of specific proposals in his State of the Union address that include increasing and indexing the minimum wage, repairing deteriorated infrastructure, and investing in education and clean energy. “It […]

People die, but the truth lives and breathes freely on its own. We now mourn the passing of 87-year old Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who, in December 2003, confirmed one of the oldest rumors of Southern political folklore: that she was the mixed-race daughter of former US Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC). Washington-Williams, whose mother worked as […]

As Mayor Gray highlighted the importance of continuing to improve public education here in the nation’s capital in his State of the District address, my thoughts turned to recent controversies surrounding our public schools. First came proposals from D.C.’s Board of Education to increase the graduation requirements for high school students enrolled in public school. […]

We’re thankful for President Obama’s leadership during the Great Recession, and we appreciate what he’s done to make America a better place. Here’s just some of his best work: His first achievement was to sign the Lily Ledbetter Act that guarantees equal pay for women. He moved to stop anti-gay discrimination in the military by […]

African Americans have been part of the American story from the founding of our nation. Men and women of African ancestry have been instrumental in forging the great nation we have today. For too long, racism and prejudice obscured the rich history of African Americans. Since 1926, February has been Black History Month, a time […]