NNPA President and CEO Dr. Ben Chavis Jr. condemned the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, calling the charges an attack on press freedom and a dangerous misuse of the FACE Act and Ku Klux Klan Act. He compared the prosecutions to historic efforts to silence the Black Press and demanded all charges be dropped, asserting that democracy cannot survive when witnesses are criminalized.
Category: OPINION
Posted inOPINION
Alex Pretti and Renee Good were lynched– how will we respond?
By William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove We don’t need better training for the men who killed these activists. We need a moral movement to disarm them and reconstruct democracy. From 1920 until 1938, a flag on Fifth Avenue in New York City proclaimed an uncomfortable reality to passers-by on New York’s busy streets: […]
Posted inCommentary
Subjective threats, fatal outcomes: The deadly gap in federal use-of-force policy
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. This week, he speaks on the recent deaths of American citizens at the hands of federal agents.
Posted inOPINION
Black History Month 2026: We proclaim it!
By Dr. Kaye Whitehead In 1926, during the nadir of Black history, Dr. Carter G. Woodson—the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the son of formerly enslaved parents, a former sharecropper and miner, and the second Black person to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University—launched the first […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: Revisiting the brutal history of Senegal’s Gorée Island and The House of Slaves
A father-and-son journey to Senegal becomes a powerful exploration of culture, hospitality, and historical memory, centering on a visit to Gorée Island and the House of Slaves. Through art, local encounters, and guided history, the writers reflect on the brutality of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the resilience of the Senegalese people, and the enduring importance of preserving Africa’s past while engaging its vibrant present.
Posted inCommentary
When equity is performed, not practiced
By Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter As we still mourn the passing of the oldest known survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Mother Viola Fletcher, Washington state’s handling of its reparations study shows the fragile line between meaningful repair and performative equity. Mother Fletcher did not live to see meaningful redress for the horror she survived, […]
Posted inCommentary
One woman’s refusal and the future of the Fed
By Eric Morrissette Recently, the Supreme Court heard arguments that could reshape the global financial system. The case before the justices asks a deceptively simple question: Can the President of the United States fire Dr. Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, before the end of her statutory term? But everyone […]
Posted inCommentary
Beyond racism, materialism and militarismÂ
The State of the Dream 2026 report warns that current policies are reinforcing racial and economic inequalities, leading to a potential Black Recession, and urgent action is needed to address these regressive trends before generational losses occur.
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: ‘You will see me’: A Black woman CEO’s declaration
By Chrissy M. Thornton I have spent my career learning how to lead with vision, discipline, empathy and results. I believe I have earned my seat – through education, experience, sacrifice and outcomes. Yet still, as a Black woman CEO, I am routinely reminded that credentials do not inoculate you from dismissal; that power, in […]
Posted inCommentary
Commentary: Marylanders are leaving money on the table– here’s how to claim what’s yours
By Brooke E. Lierman If you worked last year, you might be walking past hundreds—even thousands—of dollars that already have your name on them. Nearly 20 percent of eligible Maryland residents didn’t claim the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2023. That’s roughly 100,000 people who left their money with our state rather than in their bank accounts. Most people lived in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Montgomery County and Prince George’s […]
Posted inOPINION
Opinion: When eviction means losing everything in Baltimore
Eddie Blackstone, Baltimore Organizer at the Community Development Network and Albert Turner, Human Right to Housing Attorney at the Public Justice Center, say despite a federal appeals court ruling that says Baltimore’s abandonment law is unconstitutional, the city fails to act more than a year later.
Posted inOPINION
Our boys deserve better: Why Baltimore must protect its only all-male public school
By Walter Fields Do our boys really matter? That is the question I have pondered since learning that Baltimore City Public Schools is threatening to not renew the charter of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (BCSB). This school is the only all-male, public school of its kind in Maryland, and provides a safe and nurturing […]