NewsTrust - The Black Experience - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

A Mugging on Lake Street

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

chicagomag.com - By John Conroy - Sep. 09 (Special Report) - Hate crime or boredom attack, my injuries are the same. One thing about being hated, though—you have an identity. You’re a member of a distinct class who is important to the attacker. If you are attacked without reason, you’re nobody— you’re of no importance whatever. Mulling this over makes me question the whole notion of prosecuting hate crimes. Why is a racist thug more dangerous than the man who just feels like beating someone—anyone—up? The racist might send a message to a large population, but the nonracist sends a message to an even larger group, a message that says, “You count for nothing” and “No one is safe.”

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Racism's Hidden Toll

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Ryan Blitstein - Jun. 15 (Special Report) - Does the stress of living in a white-dominated society make African Americans get sick and die younger than their white counterparts? Apparently, yes.

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Film Spotlights Need for Reform in War on Drugs

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Lewis Beale - Apr. 17 (Special Report) - the Byrne grant program is designed to help states and local jurisdictions fight drugs and the violent crime associated with drug trafficking. The program provides federal money in 29 specific "purpose areas," including crime-victim assistance and alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders, but most of the grants are intended for police activity. And a good deal of the money disbursed is predicated on the number, not the quality, of drug arrests.

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Decades of Disparity: New Study Underscores Severity of Racial Bias in Drug-Related Law Enforcement

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Jamie Fellner, Deborah Small - Mar. 03 (News Report) - A new study underscores the severity of racial bias in drug-related law enforcement. According to Human Rights Watch, African Americans were arrested as much as five-and-a-half times as whites on drug charges every year for the past three decades. The trend dates back to 1980, the earliest date with complete data.

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The Year in Hate

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Southern Poverty Law Center - By David Holthouse - Feb. 26 (Special Report) - As in recent years, hate groups were animated by the national immigration debate. But two new forces also drove them in 2008: the worsening recession, and Barack Obama's successful campaign to become the nation's first black president. Officials reported that Obama had received more threats than any other presidential candidate in memory, and several white supremacists were arrested for saying they would assassinate him or allegedly plotting to do so.

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African-American history, 'a Paris

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

montclairtimes.com - By Elizabeth Oguss - Feb. 26 (News Report) - No matter where I went, I found the history of African people," Stevenson told The Times. "Bali, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nova Scotia, Scotland everywhere I went there would be some aspect of the history of Africans or African-Americans. I was fascinated.

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Bridging the gap

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

media.www.gwhatchet.com - By Amanda Lindner - Feb. 26 (News Report) - black students remain outnumbered by their white counterparts at GW by nearly 9 to 1, and many said in interviews that the disparity causes feelings of separation inside and outside the classroom.

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Hudson left home to get a major shot

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

charlotteobserver.com - By David Scott - Feb. 26 (Special Report) - Greensboro native left segregated South for Minnesota to be a star -- Living in Greensboro in the 1950s and early '60s, Hudson would sit on his front porch, listening on the radio to the exploits of players like North Carolina's Lenny Rosenbluth and Wake Forest's Len Chappell. But as Hudson developed into one of the state's best high school players at Greensboro's all-black Dudley High, he knew his college choices would be limited by the color barrier that not yet been broken in the ACC.

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Is Costa Rica ready for a female president?

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

GlobalPost - By Alex Leff - Feb. 25 (News Report) - “And the fact that Epsy is an Afro-Costa Rican woman reflects how some minority groups, which are historically discriminated against, are also positioning themselves as political actors in history and claiming decision-making positions,” she said.

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National NAACP urges opposition to Prop 8

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

dallasvoice.com - Feb. 24 (News Report) - In a letter to legislative leaders, NAACP national board chair Julian Bond and President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous urged lawmakers to pass House Resolution 5 and Senate Resolution 7 and put the legislature on record as calling for the courts to invalidate Prop 8 as an “improper and dangerous alteration of the California Constitution.” Jealous said, “The NAACP’s mission is to help create a society where all Americans have equal protection and opportunity under the law. Our mission statement calls for the ‘equality of rights of all persons.’ “Prop. 8 strips same-sex couples of a fundamental freedom, as defined by the California State Supreme Court. In so doing, it poses a serious threat to all Americans,” Jealous continued. “Prop. 8 is a discriminatory, unprecedented change to the California Constitution that, if allowed to stand, would undermine the very purpose of a constitution and courts — assuring equal protection and opportunity for all and safeguarding minorities from the tyranny of the majority.”

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New Orleans Now

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ebonyjet.com - By Eric Easter - Feb. 24 (Special Report) - I struck up a conversation with a local salesman who sounded equally wistful, “Mardi Gras is still fun, but it used to be very different. The whole season used to be a festive time. I might have a brunch at my house and my wife’s sister might have a brunch at her house, and you went from house to house and celebrated all day. People really opened up their homes for everyone who stopped by. Now it’s too much about the parades and the balls.”

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Crossing the Gap

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

tolerance.org - By Tim Lockette - Feb. 24 (Special Report) - ...Some people would say that Brandon and Amanda are from two completely different worlds. But they really live in the same world: a place called Chicagoland, a single metropolitan area divided by race, class and income. She lives in Winnetka, a mostly-white suburb of Chicago. He lives a short train ride away, on Chicago's mostly-black South Side. Brandon's school spends about $11,000 per student per year, while Amanda's school spends more than $17,000. It's segregation in all but name. They aren't going to take it any more. Brandon and Amanda are both part of a newly-formed group called the Illinois Council of Students, a coalition of kids from some of the Chicago area's richest and poorest districts, which is mounting a statewide effort to end school inequity in their state once and for all.

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Spike Lee tells students to pursue their dreams

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The News Journal - By Ginger Gibson - Feb. 24 (News Report) - "One of the great things about this presidential election is for far too long the limits of the African American experience has been small,"

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The Other Black President

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Adam Serwer - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - Jealous is part community organizer, part savvy financial operator, and part tech geek. In less than a year as president, he has made converts out of his critics both within the NAACP and outside it, and he has modernized the organization by drawing young, gifted and black talent. In advance of the presidential election, Jealous developed a new online system to help the NAACP register thousands of voters. And he has used his fundraising connections to resolve the fiscal crisis left by his predecessor. "He knows just about everyone," says Tammy Tanner, an administrative assistant at the Rosenberg Foundation, the philanthropic organization Jealous ran before leaving for the NAACP. "He says, let's have wine and sit down and talk, and people are writing $10,000 checks for him." When several donors pulled out of an NAACP fundraiser in San Francisco over the chapter president's opposition to the Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban, Jealous jumped on a plane to California and raised $19,000 to fill the gap.

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Letter from Atlanta

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ebony - By William Jelani Cobb - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - There is no single number, no weighted index to explain what it means to have the real possibility of a black president, and while 40% of black children remain below the poverty line and a million black men languish in prison. There is no index, but there is a case study of these irreconcilable developments, a place where the balance sheet of progress and failure is as simple as a zip code. And that place is Atlanta.

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Writer gives voice to O.C.'s African American pioneers

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ocregister.com - By Chris Caesar - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - While local author Bob Johnson has spent the past 45 years of his life fighting for racial equality, he's quick to admit it wasn't until his early 20s that he actually had the chance to talk with an African American. Growing up in an overwhelmingly white neighborhood in northern Chicago, Johnson had seen only two African Americans in his youth: one riding by on a bicycle, and another who happened to knock on his family's front door. It was during his service in the Army in the mid-1950s that Johnson first worked side-by-side with – and reported to – African Americans.

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At 100, 'Aunt Gertrude' a witness to history

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Bay State Banner - By Margarita Persico - Feb. 20 (Special Report) - Gertrude Smith was focused. It was Jan. 20, 2009. Barack Obama was taking the oath of office, and the 100-year-old wasn’t about to miss a second of history unfolding. “I kept my eyes right on the screen, looking at what was happening,” said Smith. “I watched every minute of it. I could not turn my eyes away … I didn’t stop to eat, to drink, to go to the bathroom, nothing. I just kept my eyes looking at the screen.” It is fair to say that Smith has become a fan of our new president. She’s proud to say that she read the Obama biography “Yes We Can” in a day, and on Jan. 20, she joined others at Jamaica Plain’s Sherrill House nursing and rehabilitation center to dissect the president’s inaugural address.

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From pain to pride

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Bay State Banner - By Margarita Persico - Feb. 19 (Other) - "Yvette Modestin remembers the feeling of isolation that came from claiming two cultures but being embraced by none." (Disclosure: I wrote the article.)

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Is it time to end Black History Month?

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Bay State Banner - By Jesse Washington - Feb. 13 (News Analysis) - Should Black History Month itself fade into history? Many have long argued that African American history should be incorporated into year-round education. Now claims that Black History Month is outdated are gaining a new potency, as schools diversify their curricula and President Barack Obama’s election opens a new chapter in the nation’s racial journey.

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Charlotte at center of civil rights era

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

charlotteobserver.com - By David Perlmutt David Perlmutt David Perlmutt David Perlmutt - Feb. 11 (Special Report) - The bomb on that early November morning in 1965 was meant for her husband, Kelly Alexander Sr., head of the local and state NAACP who'd become a vocal leader in the debate over school desegregation. Soon, three more bombs would go off: one next door at the home of politician Fred Alexander, Kelly's older brother; and another at the home of Charlotte dentist and activist Reginald Hawkins. A fourth was aimed at civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers, who months earlier had sued to force the school board to eliminate segregated schools.

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Nationalism and Barack Obama

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ebony - By Brian Gilmore - Jan. 29 (Special Report) - Malcolm X and what he represents is missing from the discussion of the meaning of President Barack Obama and what black people can do now for themselves. In fact, those men and women who have historically sought to advance the African-American struggle for equality using the views and teachings of Malcolm X are almost completely missing from the Obama discussion.

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Black in Iraq

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

prisonradio.org - By Mumia Abu-Jamal - Jan. 26 (Special Report) - (Audio file link)

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Civil Rights Icon Rev. Joseph Lowery Delivers Benediction at Obama Inauguration

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Joseph Lowery - Jan. 21 (News Analysis) - Lowery is a towering figure in the civil rights movement. In 1955, he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Two years later, he and Martin Luther King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1965, Rev. Lowery led the march from Selma to Montgomery. At Tuesday’s inauguration he began the benediction with the opening lines of the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

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