Welcome back to Everything’s Political, Capital B’s news, culture, and politics newsletter! Every Thursday, I’ll take a look at recent stories that seem particularly noteworthy. Here’s what I’ve got for you this week. TikTok Might Be on Borrowed Time The clock is ticking for TikTok. Pointing to alleged national security risks, President Joe Biden on […]
voting rights
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
How We’re Covering the 2024 Election
Mission: Capital B’s journalism is rooted in people. This means that we center our election coverage around how political issues and policy decisions affect Black people in America. Too often, mainstream newsrooms gloss over or ignore what issues matter to Black communities, where there’s often the most to lose or gain when it comes to […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Everything’s Political, Including Your Voice
Welcome back to Everything’s Political, Capital B’s news, culture, and politics newsletter! Every Thursday, I’ll take a look at recent stories that seem particularly noteworthy. Here’s what I’ve got for you this week. Black Dissent Under Siege in the Deep South Exactly 60 years ago this month, organizers in Mississippi — including Fannie Lou Hamer, […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Everything’s Political, Including a Promise
Welcome back to Everything’s Political, Capital B’s news, culture, and politics newsletter! Every Thursday, I’ll take a look at recent stories that seem particularly noteworthy. Here’s what I’ve got for you this week. Biden’s Promise to Black America Janet Jackson put it best in 1986: What have you done for me lately? Today, Black voters […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Has Biden Kept His Campaign Promises to Black Americans? The Answer Is Complicated.
Black Americans were largely responsible for delivering the presidency to Joe Biden in 2020, and the debate over whether he’s delivered on his campaign promises is endless. Yet, with this year’s November showdown between him and former President Donald Trump steadily approaching, the options for us are limited. Skepticism, confusion, and even pre-election fatigue are […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Federal Court Strikes Major Blow to Black Voting Rights
A federal district court’s order on Thursday allowing South Carolina to use a racially discriminatory congressional map for the 2024 election cycle is a gut punch to Black voters. “For over a century, the NAACP has worked fervently to protect Black Americans’ access to the ballot box. Make no mistake — these discriminatory maps are […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Biden, Bloody Sunday, and the Ongoing Fight for Black Votes
Fifty-nine years ago on Thursday, white state troopers brutalized voting rights protesters as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Footage of the carnage — one officer cracked 25-year-old John Lewis’ skull with a billy club — enraged the country, and galvanized widespread support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
How the Legacy of a Reconstruction-Era Massacre Shapes Voting Rights Today
Shauna Sias, 48, has lived in Opelousas, Louisiana, almost her entire life. And thanks to her father, a civil rights advocate who battled racial segregation in the Deep South, she’s always known about the massacre that shattered the small Louisiana city during Reconstruction. Over the course of around two weeks beginning on Sept. 28, 1868, […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
60 Years After the Civil Rights Act, Equal Opportunity Is Under Attack
There’s too much at stake with constant assaults on civil rights — and a new report is calling on Black Americans to organize and “fight for the soul of America.” The National Urban League’s State of Black America report comes just months ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
Black Louisianans Enter a New Political Era
Baton Rouge resident Ashley Shelton was overjoyed when she learned that, after a years-long legal battle, Black Louisianans have secured greater political representation. On Monday, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law a map that follows the math by adding a second majority-Black congressional district. Previously, Black Louisianans had a fair shot at electing their […]