Category: OPINION

As we celebrate another notable anniversary of the civil rights era – Thurgood Marshall’s 1954 victory in the five cases we know, collectively, as Brown v. Topeka Board of Education – we should take a moment to thank Harry and Eliza Briggs and their neighbors in Clarendon County, S.C. Their efforts to assure that Clarendon […]

A recent study from a group of researchers at the Urban Institute, the University of Maryland, and UCLA found that giving families access to greater opportunity in stable housing and high-quality neighborhoods wasn’t enough to help them escape the grip of poverty. Interestingly, one of the challenges these families faced was the lack of a […]

I write to correct erroneous information published in your article of May 16, “Move of Bowie State Commencement to U of Md. Sparks Outrage, Protest.” Bowie State University celebrated the graduation of nearly 650 students on May 19 in a ceremony that welcomed more than 9,000 family members and friends to witness the occasion of […]

Acie was a tough old bird! He took no prisoners and suffered very few fools. An atomic veteran, the skipper of John Kennedy’s PT 109, and a founding member of Stand Up! For Democracy in DC, he was one you wanted on your side. I first met Acie in 1997 at what happened to be […]

“Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” – Mayer Amschel Rothschild I often wonder if most Black people in America really understand the across-the-board impact economics has on our daily lives. Or, have we just been beaten down so badly that we have fallen into a […]

The last Monday in May, Memorial Day, is for honoring those who died in service to our country. It is tragically ironic that around the same time we are honoring and remembering the dead, we are learning about deficiencies in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs that negatively affects the quality of life for those who […]

Morgan State University President David Wilson was wrong in attempting to preempt or otherwise influence the final judgment of the Maryland Federal District Court by proposing several joint programs with Towson University. However, the Morgan State University Board of Regents was absolutely right in realizing that proposing those programs under current state policies, practices and […]

On May 5, I joined Dr. Claudia Baquet and other notables to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Journal of Health for the Poor and Underserved. We came together to share our practical and moral assessments of the Affordable Care Act (more widely known as “ObamaCare”). For those of us who were strong advocates for […]

Whenever someone is the first to reach a historic milestone in the world of finance and wealth, notable homage is usually paid to that achievement. Such is the case with Dr. Dre, hip-hop icon and entertainment industry mogul. Dr. Dre has emerged as the first hip-hop billionaire. Apple recently announced it is in the process […]

Last week’s Baltimore City Council’s vote giving preliminary approval of council bill 13-0261 Minors – Curfew Reform, a beefed up version of a decades old piece of legislation, is outrageously unfair to our youth and their families. Every June for the past four years, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has released a press advisory announcing the opening […]

Thousands of fast food workers took to the streets this week, staging strikes in protest over their low pay. In states where the minimum wage has not been raised above the federal level, if a worker could put together a full-time, full-year schedule, she would earn just $15,080 a year. Some people scoff at raising […]