By Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead Four nights ago, I sent out a tweet praying that the people of Ukraine prevail against the relentless attack from President Putin and the Russian Army. I said that I was praying for them to win. I received a reply in just a few minutes that stopped me in my […]
Category: Commentary
Posted inOPINION
Commentary: Robert F. Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Frank Baker and William Pickard top list of Black donors to HBCUs
By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association Billionaire philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott donated $560 million last year to 23 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), making headlines across the country at a time when racial equity has become front-page news. However, for decades Black leaders in business, entertainment, […]
Posted inOpinion
The Moore Report: Bite-sized stories to chew on
By Ralph E. Moore, Jr. Racism raging while at war The horrors of the war in Ukraine duly noted, I’m sure many Americans are greatly concerned about the racially discriminatory treatment of Africans and East Indians attempting to leave Ukraine for their safety and security. It is not a “rumor” but widely re-reported in the […]
Posted inCommentary
Henrietta Lacks deserves the Congressional Gold Medal
By Congressman Kweisi Mfume The chronicles of human history have always contained chapters depicting martyrs whose legacies are crafted through their selfless sacrifice. For most of these figures, their physical lives were finite, from birth until death. The effects their lives have on the world after they depart continue their story in spirit. But for […]
Posted inOpinion
Op-Ed: Racial Justice & Cannabis Legalization in MD 2022
By Dayvon Love, Special to the AFRO The Maryland General Assembly (MGA) is looking to pass legislation in 2022 to legalize cannabis. Black people have been hit the hardest by the war on drugs, which includes the prohibition of cannabis. We have been subject to mass incarceration and the denigration of our communities. As a result, we […]
Posted inOPINION
OP-ED: TAX SALE IS A KILLER
By Nneka Nnamdi and Sean Yoes The tragic death of three Baltimore City Firefighters: firefighter/paramedic Kelsey Sadler, EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo and Lt. Paul Butrim (firefighter John McMaster was also critically injured, but survived), the morning of Jan. 25, while battling a blaze at a vacant house in the 200 block of S. Stricker Street, refocused […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: It’s time we invest in Black women entrepreneurship
By Larelle Clarke Innovation drives me as an individual. I love being able to solve complex issues and bring new solutions to old problems. When I saw the opportunity to start my own business, FareXchange, a business-to-business delivery platform, I left my job of over ten years to embark on a new, exciting journey. For […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: Women’s History: Progress Isn’t Guaranteed
By Delegate Brooke Lierman The final major event of the 2020 General Assembly session was a 100th anniversary event of suffrage during Women’s History Month – and then the world stopped and session ended early for the first time in 150 years. In a way, women’s forward progress in the workforce stopped as well – […]
Posted inOpinion
TBE#11 – Women’s History Month Sees Historic Progress For Black Women In America, But Work Remains To Achieve Full Equality
By Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League “From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: The struggle continues: The unfinished work of police accountability in Maryland
By Delegate Gabriel Acevero “I have witnessed and endured the brutality of the police many more times than once but, of course, I cannot prove it. I cannot prove it because the Police Department investigates itself, quite as though it were answerable only to itself. But it cannot be allowed to be answerable only to […]
Posted inCommentary
Implementing Anton’s Law in Maryland
By Miranda S. Spivack A community group in Montgomery County was asked to pay $95,000 for copies of police discipline and complaint records, which, under a 2021 change in Maryland law, are no longer automatically private. Local public defenders in Baltimore seeking those records have been told to pay as little as $10 to the […]
Posted inCommentary
What is Anton’s Law?
By Rebecca Snyder, executive director, Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association Last year, Maryland’s General Assembly passed the groundbreaking Anton’s Law (the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021) to bring more transparency to police discipline records by making them available under Maryland’s Public Information Act. The movement for reform began with the 2018 death of Anton Black, a […]