When word spread through Bessemer, Alabama, earlier this year that a tech giant was eyeing hundreds of pine-covered acres at the city’s edge, Benard Simelton’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. The longtime NAACP leader had fielded calls about toxic air and shuttered steel mills before, but this, he said, was new to him. At first, the […]
Politics & Policy
Posted inPolitics & Policy
From Fani Willis to Letitia James, Trump’s Enemies List Targets Black Women in Positions of Power
New York Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James did not fold when a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted her. Days after the Oct. 9 announcement, she took the stage at the United Palace in Manhattan to stump for New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani. On the evening of Oct. 13, dressed in a […]
Posted inEducation, Politics & Policy
Federal Layoffs Put Head Start, FAFSA, and Civil Rights Investigations at Risk
The U.S. Department of Education has begun laying off more than 450 employees — many of whom oversee special education and civil rights enforcement. After the layoffs, a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from firing government workers. While the judge’s decision has temporarily prevented more cuts to government […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voting
These Louisiana Voters Are Standing Up to Save Voting Rights Across America
WASHINGTON — Living in North Baton Rouge is like being on the wrong side of the tracks, Martha Davis said. There are potholes everywhere that make you feel as if you’re driving on a washboard, southeastern Louisiana residents are still reeling from the loss of medical facilities, and the area has some of the lowest-performing […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration, Politics & Policy
Cannabis Convictions Still Haunt Black Families. This Nonprofit Offers a Lifeline.
Sitting in a Virginia state prison cell, Bryan Reid would often slouch his shoulders, droop his chin, and pout his bottom lip — the posture of someone struggling to believe how his life had come to this. Before he was transferred in 2018 to Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells, he was a proud father of […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy, Technology
In Houston, A Program Turns Sunlight into Second Chances for Incarcerated Texans
HOUSTON — Leon Dillard gripped the solar panel tight, sweat stinging his eyes as he scaled the sun-baked roof for the first time. His adrenaline racing, he remembered making sure his harness was clipped not once, but twice. He’d never climbed up onto a roof before, let alone with a 50-pound panel of metal and […]
Posted inEconomic Development, Housing, Politics & Policy
In LA, Olympic Dreams Lead to Nightmares for a Historic Black Community
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 […]
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 […]