Category: OPINION

One year later, the Trayvon Martin tragedy still stings, and some people are still throwing salt on the open wound. Last week George Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman, posted a tweet comparing Trayvon Martin to De’Marquis Elkins, 17-year-old black teenager charged with fatally shooting a one-year-old baby. The tweet showed a photo of Elkins side by […]

The state of equality and justice in America is shameful–especially since the election of President Barack Obama. Unlike many of my friends who think America is going to hell in a hand basket, and have given up thinking things will get better for those who’ve been marginalized for so long, I still have hope for […]

In the Baltimore region, and across America, job growth remains the most important issue on people’s minds. That is why job creation continues to be my number one priority in the Congress. We have evidence that our economy is improving. It also remains painfully clear, however, that we have many more good jobs to create, […]

In February, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which was the first bill President Clinton signed into law. President Obama hailed the law, as did current and former lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle. Indeed, it was a singular accomplishment for the nation – the first […]

I am expressing my deep disappointment in your office not honoring the Legislative Black Caucus of the State of Maryland’s (LBCM) request to fund Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for $70 million over the next five years. This $14 million request per year was denied in this year’s proposed budget and would […]

August 2013 represents the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. Publicly associated with Dr. King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech, this march brought more than 250,000 people to Washington, D.C. to demand freedom and jobs. Initiated by Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters President A. Philip Randolph, this became a joint project with […]

“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.” – Whitney M. Young In August 1963, more than a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington, D.C. to march for jobs and equality. The Great March for Jobs and Freedom was […]

On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped to the podium of the Riverside Church in New York to vigorously proclaim his opposition to the War in Vietnam. It was one of the most powerful orations among numerous remarkable speeches delivered during his brief but extraordinary life. In articulating a persuasive moral and […]

Forty years ago, the Supreme Court created an unmitigated disaster for our nation’s school children when it ruled on the case of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez. The 5-4 decision allowed Texas to fund school districts on the basis of locally raised tax dollars, confining children in poor communities to underfunded schools. It […]

A few years ago, Dereck Davis was walking home from work when some men came up, held a gun to his kidneys and robbed him. He held that anger inside for years. Years later, as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, when the issue of repealing the death penalty was introduced, Davis’s traumatic […]

“All types of conniving methods are still being used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters,” Dr. King asserted during his 1957 Give Us the Ballot remarks at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington. “The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition.” As we […]