Category: OPINION

I read with great interest Jason Riley’s commentary on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) [“Black Colleges Need a New Mission,” Sept. 28, 2010] in which he refers to Black colleges as “academically inferior.” Mr. Riley uses data convenient to his case that HBCUs should be shuttered by citing the number of Blacks that now […]

If you start by tying together a bunch of surface observations – and deliberately ignore the causal factors lurking in the background – it’s easy to come up with the conclusions Jason Riley spewed in the Wall Street Journal in his article titled, “Black Colleges Need a New Mission. Once an essential response to racism, […]

Conservatives argue that the liberal social programs of the 1960s destroyed the Black family as the notion of the Black man as the patriarch of his family took a beating. In just a few generations, an intact Black family became so hard to recognize that Blacks ridiculed the 1980s family sitcom “The Cosby Show” as […]

Last week, I chaired an important judiciary subcommittee hearing that I found extremely upsetting and troubling. It focused on the increasing number of violent attacks on individuals who are homeless, a population that is often our most vulnerable. From being beaten to death by a baseball bat to being doused with gasoline and set ablaze, the […]

(NNPA) – Not surprisingly, embattled Bishop Eddie Long turned to the Bible to defend himself against charges by four men who filed suit last week in which they charged that as teenagers, Long showered them with money, expensive gifts, cars, and international travel to entice them into having a sexual relationship with him. On Sunday, […]

Two years ago, we stood up and led as Americans of good conscience came together in an historic effort to elect Barack Obama as president of the United States. Now, once again, we must stand with our president and defeat those who are working to devastate his legislative achievements and block our nation’s progress. Our […]

We need to change the way we think about health in this country, I want us to move from a system based on disease and illness to one based on wellness and prevention. We need to prevent people from getting sick in the first place, to stop illness and disease before it starts. During my […]

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The US Census Bureau’s recent report on poverty in the United States is a clarion call to our nation and our elected leaders. We in the United States possess the greatest resources and wealth ever known to humankind.  So, to have over 44 million people – 14 percent of our population – and 20 […]

Most African Americans in America are not more than a few generations removed from the farm. At the turn of the century there were more than a million Black farm families. But, in Washington, D.C., and other urban areas it can be hard to connect with Black farmers, even though it is so much a […]

(NNPA) — President Obama showed positive leadership after the catastrophe in Haiti by pledging the resources of the United States government to our neighbor in need.  Yet, eight months after the quake, many of the country’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain without food, water, sanitation and shelter. Additionally, civil society and local non-governmental organizations in […]

I want to share a couple of thoughts surrounding Billy Murphy’s recent remarks published in the Sun regarding incumbent Pat Jessamy’s candidacy for state’s attorney. Frankly, it’s not Murphy’s “silence” that has been a “failure in leadership” as he suggests, but rather his vocal innuendos that fail and hinder the progress of the Black community […]