Fre’Drisha Dixon can still recall the laughter that once spilled across the playground of the now-shuttered Clyde Woodworth Elementary School in Inglewood. Just as clearly, she can conjure up the loud banging of the bulldozers that plowed through the school’s classrooms last year. Today, both sounds are drowned out by talk of turning that barren […]
Politics & Policy
Posted inNews, Politics & Policy
Chicago’s Black Immigrants Face New Wave of ICE Arrests and Uncertainty
CHICAGO — Olayemi Owoludun was still in high school when Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. He was too young to vote, but not too young to feel its impact. A “terrified” friend who was an immigrant fell off the grid months after Trump’s first inauguration, he recalls. He was worried about his undocumented […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
Ghana’s President Calls Slave Trade ‘Greatest Crime,’ Pushes U.N. for Reparations
In a first coordinated African-led effort at the United Nations, leaders have declared the Transatlantic Slave Trade as “the greatest crime against humanity” and called for reparations. African leaders recently took the global stage at the U.N.’s General Assembly in New York, where Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, announced plans to submit the first formal […]
Posted inFood Access, Politics & Policy
For 30 Years, a Report Tracked Hunger in America. Now It’s Been Canceled
After three decades of tracking food insecurity, understanding the reality of Americans without access to reliable food may become more difficult due to the discontinuation of a federal survey. The Household Food Security Report is an annual, national survey that monitors the severity of food insecurity in U.S. households. The United States Department of Agriculture […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Calls for ‘New Blood’ Grow at Congressional Black Caucus Gathering
WASHINGTON — Twenty-two-year-old Dequavius Pitts was excited to be at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. The recent Georgia Southern University graduate is interning in the city, and curious to see how panelists discussed issues such as LGBTQ rights. Pitts can talk about his concerns with more seasoned Black members of […]
Posted inHigher Education, Politics & Policy
Black Students Confront Right-Wing Visitors as HBCU Security Tensions Grow
It took less than 30 minutes for white men with signs that read “Deport All Illegals Now” and “DEI Should Be Illegal” to know they weren’t welcome on Tennessee State University’s campus. The conservative group was quickly escorted off campus by law enforcement as Black students shouted phrases like, “Go, get out of here,” and […]
Posted inHigher Education, Politics & Policy
Black Professors on Turning Point’s Watch List Face Harassment On and Off Campus
As the news spread of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination two weeks ago, a student in Professor A.D. Carson’s “Black Voice” class made sure the room door was locked. The University of Virginia professor had told them in passing that he was on the Professor Watch List, a website created by Turning Point USA, a […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Black Students, Workers Hit in Trump’s Speech Crackdown
A Black student was expelled from Texas Tech University. Another was disenrolled from Texas State University. A Black fire chief in Cleveland, Ohio, was placed on paid leave. In the days since the killing of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, numerous stories have surfaced of people getting kicked out of school or losing their jobs […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Politics & Policy
How a $5 Billion Federal Project Could Sink the Lower Ninth Ward Forever
Willie Calhoun knows how to live with water. His home, cradled between the Mississippi River and a patchwork of canals, is split by the surging, ever-present current. But it wasn’t always that way in the Ninth Ward. Before the largest canal known as the Industrial Canal was built, the stretch of land between the river […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Partner Content, Politics & Policy
Fact Check: Social Media Said Salt Trucks Were Used to Block ICE Agents in Chicago. This Is What Really Happened.
It sounds like a bit of poetic justice, street-protest style: there have been widespread reports on social media that activists opposed to mass deportation raids were using trucks loaded with rock salt, which is typically used to clear frozen roads, to obstruct the work of agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the organization that is, […]
