The Rev. Earle J. Fisher, an activist and longtime resident of Memphis, Tennessee, is battling against yet another assault on Black economic and political progress by state Republicans. Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, these efforts have ramped up, particularly in majority-Black Shelby County, the largest county in the state. Just last month, […]
Politics & Policy
Posted inEverything's Political, Politics & 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
Everything’s Political, Including History
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. When the Anti-DEI Movement and Memory Politics Collide DEI advocates suffered a one-two punch over the past week. Punch one: Alabama Republican […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The GOP’s Long-Shot Bid for Black Voters
When Kermit Williams hears a new pro-Donald Trump radio spot that’s supposed to draw in Black voters, his mind sprints in the opposite direction: He thinks about the former president’s history of aggression toward marginalized communities. “I can’t unsee the Central Park Five and what Trump did to try to get a group of innocent […]
Posted inHistory, Politics & Policy
Daring to Be Bold: Examining Shirley Chisholm’s Everlasting Impact
When Kimberly Peeler-Allen was in the fourth grade, she had to pick someone to research for Women’s History Month. Her mother had a thought: Why not Shirley Chisholm? For Peeler-Allen, 47, the link was personal. Like Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black candidate to seek a major political party’s […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The Fight for Democracy and Black Votes Loomed Large in Biden’s Speech
Among the many special guests at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday was the jazz singer and civil rights legend Bettie Mae Fikes. Beloved as the Voice of Selma, Fikes is known for having led protests in song. She often changed the lyrics of Black standards to match the movement: “Tell […]
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 inElections, Politics & Policy
Why Super Tuesday Is a ‘Dress Rehearsal’ for the General Election
Kristin Powell vividly remembers watching the Super Tuesday returns in February 2008 and being consumed by a single question: Can he actually make it? A college student spending a semester in Italy at the time, Powell was referring to Barack Obama, the youthful U.S. senator from Illinois who was challenging the establishment darling Hillary Clinton […]