Antidemocratic behavior is permeating U.S. society at an alarming speed and scale, from restrictions on classroom instruction to bills limiting voting rights to systems of surveillance built to ban abortions — and Black Americans must remain vigilant, a new report suggests. The National Urban League’s “Democracy in Peril: Confronting the Threat Within” arrives at a […]
Politics & Policy
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Ousted Tennessee Democrats Are Returning to the House, but the State’s Problems Run Deeper
Even with the successful votes to reinstate Tennessee Democrats Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, the predominantly white Republican-led House of Representatives’ act of retaliation raises concerns about the state of democracy in Tennessee. “The expulsions don’t make the Top 10 list of the most antidemocratic or unfair things affecting Black people here,” explained Sekou […]
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‘This Is Not Democracy’: Read Justin J. Pearson’s Comments on His Expulsion in Tennessee
Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson — one of two Black Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled on Thursday — fit himself into a long history of civil rights activism when he told reporters that he’ll “never shirk back from civil disobedience” because that kind of defiance is “what built this country.” Like his fellow Democrat […]
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‘The World Is Watching’: Read Justin Jones’ Comments on His Expulsion in Tennessee
Justin Jones made it clear that “there comes a time when people get sick and tired of being sick and tired.” During an emotional seven-hour session on Thursday, Jones didn’t mince words. He was the first of two Black Tennessee lawmakers, both Democrats, to be expelled from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Hours later, his […]
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What This Historic Moment Reveals About Trump, the GOP, and Accountability
Some Republican lawmakers are calling a Manhattan grand jury’s decision to indict Donald Trump a politically motivated witch hunt. But, really, the move is a measure of accountability that could return legitimacy to a justice system that unfairly punishes Black people. “The question,” explained Marcia Chatelain, a professor of history and African American studies at […]
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Trump Called for His Execution. Now This Exoneree Has One Thing to Say: ‘Karma.’
Yusef Salaam spent nearly seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit — one of the five Black and brown teenagers Donald Trump targeted after the 1989 assault of a Central Park jogger. Decades later, after a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday indicted the former president on charges related to business fraud, Salaam […]
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What Trump’s Legal Woes Mean to Black Americans
The wait is over: A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump. It’s a historic move that caps off years of anxiety and uncertainty about whether Trump’s Teflon coating of white privilege would ever lose its power. Details of the felony indictment are expected to be announced in the coming days, The New […]
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Alvin Bragg Isn’t the Only Black Prosecutor Taking on Trump
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump on Thursday, according to multiple news sources — the first time a current or former U.S. president has faced criminal charges. Last week, when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office was poised to issue an indictment against the former president, Trump called for Bragg’s arrest and […]
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How an Anti-Drag Bill Is Creating Fear Among Some Black LGBTQ Tennesseans
Alexia Noelle Paris has been a drag artist for six years, performing nearly every weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives, or in California. For her, drag isn’t merely a form of entertainment — it’s an outlet. “I’ve always appreciated drag, even though initially I didn’t think that it was something for me,” Paris said. […]
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The History of White Lawmakers Trying to Take Over Mississippi’s Predominately Black Capital
Arekia Bennett-Scott didn’t expect her hometown to be thrust into the national spotlight just months after the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, resurfaced tensions over how state officials treat the majority-Black city. Yet, residents in the Democratic-led capital are now pushing back against efforts by white Republican state officials to gain more power over the […]