Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
The Face of Voter Suppression How can you be charged with illegally voting when you did not vote? Further, how can you be incarcerated for making a “mistake” casting a vote? What is a provisional ballot? Does a provisional ballot constitute a vote? How did the term “intentionally voted illegally” become the elephant-in-the -room in […]
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
In the following account Professor Malik Simba of California State University, Fresno, describes the century-long histry of the largest organized body dedicated to the research and promotion of African American history.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is the oldest and largest historical society established for the promotion of African American history. Carter Godwin Woodson founded it as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in 1915. The name was later changed to the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1972. The Associations‘ mission statement describes its purpose to promote, research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.” The Association’s vision statement still refers to itself as “the premier Black heritage learned society…[which]will continue the Carter G. Woodson legacy.”
Dr. Woodson, known as the father of Negro History, created two publications in support of the ASNLH, the Journal of Negro History and the Negro History Bulletin. In 1926 he initiated the national campaign to celebrate black history through annual Negro History Week observances. Woodson purposely chose the second week in February between the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Woodson explaining that in publicizing the records, contributions, and accomplishments of Black people, the Association’s aim “…is not spectacular propaganda or fire-eating agitation. Nothing can be accomplished in such fashion…The aim of this organization is to set forth facts in scientific form, facts properly set forth will tell their own story.”
Leaning strongly on historical objectivity as a change agent for race relations progress, Woodson was a product of his time, place, and experience. The themes of the annual ASNLH meetings were driven by Woodson’s personal history as a son of ex-slaves, a child laborer in West Virginia coal mines, a older high
The growing disdain for Biden among young Democratic voters has been predicted to dwindle with the promise of a Black woman as vice president, but for many, this is not the case.
This sentiment is shared amongst many young Black voters who are weary of the Democratic Party’s unfulfilled promises as a whole.
Still, other young Black voters aren’t impressed with the pool of choices, and the disdain for Biden is so much that they would risk another four years of Trump.
“I hate to say it, but between Biden and Trump, I’d still vote Trump,” says one young Black woman.
There seems to be no guarantee that the Democratic party will achieve its intended end if Biden chooses a Black woman to run alongside him.
Thomas J. “Tom” Bradley, five-term Mayor of Los Angeles and the first major black candidate for Governor of California, was born in Calvert, Texas, on December 29, 1917, the son of Lee Thomas Bradley, a railroad porter, and Crenner Bradley, a maid. He was the grandson of former slaves.
Bradley graduated from Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in 1937, and then attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) until 1940 when he left the institution to join the Los Angeles Police Department. While at UCLA, Bradley joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. In 1941 Bradley married Ethel Arnold. The couple had three children, Lorraine, Phyllis, and a baby who died on the day of her birth.
Bradley rose to become a Lieutenant by 1960, the highest ranking African American at that time. While serving on the force, he earned his law degree at Southwestern University in Los Angeles.
Admitted to the bar in 1962, he served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1963 to 1972. Bradley’s sprawling 10th District in West Central Los Angeles covered the Crenshaw area, a multiethnic community that included many white voters. With this base Bradley forged a coalition between middle class blacks and whites which was a major factor in his political success.
During his tenure on the Los Angeles City Council, Bradley criticized racist attitudes within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), including the Department’s handling of the 1965 Watts Rebellion. In 1969, in his first mayoral bid, most polls showed him in the lead. But his opponent, incumbent mayor Sam Yorty, with the backing of conservative police officers who resented Bradley’s criticisms, successfully played on white racial fears by falsely portraying him as a Black Panther Party supporter.
Bradley lost the 1969 race but when pitted against Yorty again in 1973, he won and became the city’s first black mayor in modern times. Bradley was elected four additional times and thus served as mayor of Los Angeles for twenty years, again a record in the modern era. His
Situated on the Atlantic coast in westernmost Africa and surrounded on three sides by Senegal, Gambia is twice the size of Delaware. The Gambia River flows for 200 mi (322 km) through Gambia on its way to the Atlantic. The country, the smallest on the continent, averages only 20 mi (32 km) in width.
Republic.
Since the 13th century, the Wolof, Malinke, and Fulani peoples have settled in what is now Gambia. The Portuguese were the first European explorers, encountering the Gambia River in 1455, and in 1681, the French founded an enclave at Albredabut. During the 17th century, Gambia was settled by various companies of English merchants. Slavery was the chief source of revenue before it was abolished in 1807. Gambia became a British Crown colony in 1843 and an independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations on Feb. 18, 1965. Full independence was approved in a 1970 referendum, and on April 24 of that year Gambia proclaimed itself a republic.
Dauda Kairaba Jawara served as Gambias president from 1970 to 1994. A military coup led by Capt. Yahya Jammeh deposed the president in July 1994, suspended the constitution, and banned existing political parties. Jammeh promised new elections, which were held in Sept. 1996 and which he won with 55% of the vote. In 1997, he returned the country to civilian rule, and in 2001, he lifted the ban against opposition parties. Censorship of the press and other repressive measures mar the countrys transition to democracy. In Dec. 2004, Gambia passed a media law that allows the state to jail journalists found guilty of libel and sedition. In September presidential elections, incumbent Yahya Jammeh won a third term.
In Nov. 2011 presidential elections, incumbent Yahya Jammeh won 72% of the vote, Ousainou Darboe 17%, and Hamat Bah 11% with 83% voter turnout.
On the morning of Dec. 30, 2014, an attempt was made to oust President Jammeh. Nine men attacked the presidential palace in Banjul. The coup attempt was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Lamin Sanneh. Sanneh once led the countrys
The campaign coincides with a new documentary
On May 8, 2009, Ronald Cordell Sims became the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sims now second-in-command of the federal agency will oversee day-to-day operations of the Department which has an annual budget of $39 billion and some 8,500 employees. A long time champion of environmental stewardship and mass transit, he will now confront the national foreclosure crisis among other housing issues.
Ronald C. Sims, a twin, was born on July 5, 1948, in Spokane, Washington, to James M. Sims and Lydia T. Ramsey Sims. During World War II his parents had moved from Newark, New Jersey, to Spokane’s Geiger Air Field, where his father served in Army Air Force.
After graduating from Lewis and Clark High School in 1966, Sims attended Central Washington State College (now Central Washington University). While in college he became politically engaged as a columnist for the student newspaper. He wrote articles that challenged many of the policies of school officials. His activism contributed to his election as vice president of the student body in his junior year, and in his final year of college, the student body president.
Sims graduated from college in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and then moved to Seattle. He held a series of local, state, and federal government positions. His first position was as an investigator with the consumer-protection division of the Washington State Attorney’s office. Later he held a similar post with the Federal Trade Commission. In 1979 he became the manager of youth services for the City of Seattle’s Department of Human Resources. Sims later became the director of the South East Effective Development (SEED), a community based organization that advocated economic development and social justice in southeast Seattle.
Ron Sims began his political career in 1985 when he became the first African American elected to the King County Council. While on the Council, Sims promoted civil rights issues including lobbying for the
This important voting bloc is ready to drive seismic change
Continue reading on ZORA »
Three former senators now claim there is a plot to install President Uhuru Kenyatta or his brother Muhoho Kenyatta as prime minister after the next general election.
They added: “In the event that the country can be subjected to a referendum to enable a powerful executive prime minister, then Uhuru Kenyatta will be Kenya’s prime minister.
In the event of a watered-down version of a prime minister, Muhoho Kenyatta, Uhuru’s younger brother, will be prime minister”.
Contradicting our conventional ethnic sensibilities, William Ruto has boggling and overwhelming support over Uhuru Kenyatta in the Mt Kenya region.
Yet, to achieve the goal of changing the constitution to enable a Kenyatta prime minister, Uhuru Kenyatta needs the Mt Kenya region,” the three senators’ statement added.
The Seattle chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) emerged as one of the most significant grass roots organizations in the fight for civil rights in the Pacific Northwest. Established in 1961, the Seattle chapter embodied the non-violent principles of the national organization which had been founded in Chicago in 1942. Multi-racial in composition, the Seattle chapter established a reputation for being one of CORE’s most active by the early 1960s. Best known for its organized protests against Seattle employers who engaged in racial discrimination, the Seattle chapter also worked to end discrimination towards African Americans in housing and education in the Greater Seattle area.
Several people, both black and white contributed significantly to the founding of Seattle’s chapter of CORE. Among the most important were Ken Rose, Ed and Joan Singler, and Ray Cooper whose participation in the Freedom Rides of 1961 helped inspire many others to join the organization. Ray Williams served as the first chair of CORE and Don Matson provided significant leadership. Harold “Tim” Martin played a key role along with Reginald Alleyne, Jr.
Beginning in October, 1961, the Seattle chapter began “selective buying” campaigns against various supermarkets in the city including Safeway and the A & P. Black patrons were encouraged not to shop where they could not be employed. One of the most effective tactics was the “shop-in” where protesters would take all the shopping carts, fill them, have the cashier ring them up, and then refuse to pay. By 1962, CORE shifted its focus to the downtown department stores. Jean Durning and Reverend Mance Jackson led efforts to integrate the Bon Marche. Soon to follow were efforts against Nordstroms, and J.C. Penney. Picketing was often used as a tactic. By the end of 1963, it was estimated that African Americans had been hired into more than 250 white-collar positions. Based on these gains the Seattle chapter was considered one of the most successful in the country. The
Hiram Rhoades Revels was the first African American United States Senator, filling the seat left vacant by Jefferson Davis in 1861 when Mississippi seceded from the Union.
Born in the 1820s in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Hiram Revels was the son of free parents of mixed African American and Native American ancestry. Revels moved with his family to Lincolnton, North Carolina in 1842, where he became a barber. Two years later he left the South and enrolled at Beech Grove Seminary, a Quaker institution near Liberty, Indiana. In 1845 he entered Darke County (Ohio) Seminary for Negroes. The same year Revels was ordained a minister in a Baltimore African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In the early 1850s he married Phoebe A. Bass of Zanesville, Ohio, and together they had six children.
Hiram Revels traveled across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky and Tennessee, preaching to both free and enslaved African Americans. He moved his ministry to an AME church in St. Louis in 1853, but moved again after only a year, due to a dispute with the local bishop. Revels ultimately left the AME denomination and enrolled at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois for two years (1857-1858). He then returned to Baltimore where he was appointed the first African American pastor of the Madison Street Presbyterian Church, a position he held until 1863. Between 1863 and 1865 Revels served as a chaplain in the Union Army and helped recruit and organize black Union Army work battalions in Maryland and Missouri. He also founded a black high school in St. Louis and several churches.
After the Civil War, he continued traveling, preaching in Leavenworth, Kansas; Louisville, Kentucky; and New Orleans, Louisiana. On June 1868, Revels became the presiding elder at a church in Natchez, Mississippi, and shortly thereafter he was appointed to the city board of aldermen.
As a prominent, highly educated African American, Revels was encouraged by many to seek higher office. He ran for the Adams county seat in the state
In 1972 Barbara Charline Jordan became the first black member of Congress elected from Texas. Two years later this freshman Representative became a national figure because of her prominent role as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon. Two years later she became the first African American and the first woman to deliver the keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City. Her speech, delivered on July 12, appears below.
It was one hundred and forty-four years ago that members of the Democratic Party first met in convention to select a Presidential candidate. Since that time, Democrats have continued to convene once every four years and draft a party platform and nominate a Presidential candidate. And our meeting this week is a continuation of that tradition. But there is something different about tonight. There is something special about tonight. What is different? What is special?
I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.
When -- A lot of years passed since 1832, and during that time it would have been most unusual for any national political party to ask a Barbara Jordan to deliver a keynote address. But tonight, here I am. And I feel -- I feel that notwithstanding the past that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American Dream need not forever be deferred.
Now -- Now that I have this grand distinction, what in the world am I supposed to say? I could easily spend this time praising the accomplishments of this party and attacking the Republicans but I dont choose to do that. I could list the many problems which Americans have. I could list the problems which cause people to feel cynical, angry, frustrated: problems which include lack of integrity in government; the feeling that the individual no longer counts; the reality of material and spiritual poverty; the feeling that the grand American experiment is failing or has failed. I could recite these problems, and then I could sit down and offer no
Mary Sheffield wants residents involved
These are workers who John Logan, labor historian at San Francisco State University, says are in “essential jobs done by disposable people.”
Low wage workers have been dying in these places and more than half of them don’t have paid sick leave, let alone healthcare benefits.
In fact, many of these workers’ wages are so low they still have to rely on government programs like food stamps and Medicaid to feed their families and provide for their medical care.
But for the “essential” low wage jobs that remain for the foreseeable future, we should support efforts by these workers to unionize so they can bargain collectively for the wages and benefits they deserve, to do the jobs we need to keep our economy running.
Sharon Block of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School said, coronavirus “made workplace conditions of low wage workers relevant to the whole country.”
The most important word on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times is “incalculable.”
But The Times is trying, in a unique way, by dedicating Sunday’s front page and three inside pages to the names of about one thousand victims.
But as the number of confirmed deaths approaches 100,000, editors and reporters at The Times talked about ways to take stock of what has happened in the past few months.
So The Times gathered names and stories of Covid-19 victims from newspapers across America.
Dan Barry, a veteran writer for The Times, has an essay inside the paper about “The Human Toll” of the pandemic to date.
Spelman College, a historically black, liberal arts college for women, opened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1881. The previous year, a fledgling New England organization called the Women’s American Baptist Home Mission Society secured funds for a college for freedwomen in the city. Approximately one hundred African American women soon began attending school at the institution they created, the Atlanta Female Baptist Seminary.
Instructed by four white, northern-born teachers, the students took classes in the basement of an Atlanta church until two of those teachers made a fateful visit to a Cleveland, Ohio Baptist church in June of 1882. Two members of the congregation, oil magnate John D. Rockefeller and his wife, Laura Spelman, donated funds to the school. The Rockefellers visited Atlanta to celebrate the third anniversary of the seminary two years later, and during the ceremony, the trustees renamed the institution Spelman to honor Mrs. Rockefellers abolitionist family.
Because Atlanta would not open a black public high school until 1924, the first generation of Spelman students enrolled in courses equivalent to high school instruction. In 1887, Spelman awarded its first diplomas at this level. Two women received the school’s first baccalaureate degrees in 1901.
In Spelman’s first decades, a series of notoriously strict presidents, all friends of the Rockefeller family from the Northeast, required students to adhere to the standards of Victorian-era feminine propriety. Women wore hats and gloves in public, and they needed special written permission to travel off campus. Under the title “domestic training,” they learned domestic skills such as sewing, cooking, and laundry work. Two of the school’s founders, Harriet Giles and Sophia Packard, believed that former slaves lacked correct work habits, so they demanded that Spelman students rise at four thirty each morning to wash and iron their clothes, a practice that continued into the 1920s.
Spelmans curriculum focused heavily on teacher training, although
Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr., the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens (FBCLG) in Somerset, New Jersey, and the former New Jersey Secretary of State, launched the Billion Dollar Challenge to create black wealth and to motivate the black communities to strive for financial freedom during unprecedented times.
Dr. Soaries: The Billion Dollar Challenge (BDC) is a dfree® campaign to create black wealth.
BDC at its core basic level is an online tool that is used to help people manage their debts, make plans to pay them off using online calculators and planning tools as well as build our savings to establish a more positive financial position.
Black Enterprise: Can you explain some of the tools being offered to help motivate and educate people that are striving for financial freedom?
Dr. Soaries: We have signed up 10,000 participants
Black Enterprise: How can the African American black communities utilize the stimulus checks in a way that benefits them for the future, beyond COVID-19?
U.S. Department of State Background Note
Although Haiti averages about 302 people per square kilometer, its population is concentrated most heavily in urban areas, coastal plains, and valleys. About 95% of Haitians are of African descent. The rest of the population is mostly of mixed Caucasian-African ancestry. A few are of European or Levantine heritage. Sixty percent of the population lives in rural areas.
French is one of two official languages, but it is spoken by only about 10% of the people. All Haitians speak Creole, the countrys other official language. English is increasingly used as a second language among the young and in the business sector.
The dominant religion is Roman Catholicism. Increasing numbers of Haitians have converted to Protestantism through the work of missionaries active throughout the country. Much of the population also practices voudou (voodoo), recognized by the government as a religion in April 2003. Haitians tend to see no conflict in these African-rooted beliefs coexisting with Christian faith.
Although public education is free, the cost is still quite high for Haitian families who must pay for uniforms, textbooks, supplies, and other inputs. Due to weak state provision of education services, private and parochial schools account for approximately 90% of primary schools, and only 65% of primary school-aged children are actually enrolled. At the secondary level, the figure drops to around 20%. Less than 35% of those who enter will complete primary school. Though Haitians place a high value on education, few can afford to send their children to secondary school and primary school enrollment is dropping due to economic factors. Remittances sent by Haitians living abroad are important in paying educational costs.
Large-scale emigration, principally to the U.S.--but also to Canada, the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and other Caribbean neighbors, and France--has created what Haitians refer to as the Tenth Department or the Diaspora. About one of every eight Haitians lives
With Republican-led voter suppression efforts ramped up, one could make a legal argument of gross negligence about our election system. But can anyone prove it?
By TAMARA LUSH and EMILY SCHMALL, Associated Press
Arizona’s Republican governor shut down bars, movie theaters, gyms and water parks Monday and leaders in several states ordered residents to wear masks in public in a dramatic course reversal amid an alarming resurgence of coronavirus cases nationwide.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that he’s postponing the restarting of indoor dining because people have not been wearing face masks or complying with recommendations for social distancing.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said she will issue an executive order mandating the use of masks in stores and shops, restaurants, and in any situation where social distancing of 6 feet (2 meters) cannot be maintained, including outside.
In Texas, a group of bar owners sued on Monday to try to overturn Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s order closing their businesses.
One of Cuomo’s Republican counterparts, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, on a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House coronavirus task force, also asked Pence and Trump to issue a national call to wear masks.
Niger, in West Africas Sahara region, is four-fifths the size of Alaska. It is surrounded by Mali, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, and Burkina Faso. The Niger River in the southwest flows through the countrys only fertile area. Elsewhere the land is semiarid.
Republic, emerging from military rule.
The nomadic Tuaregs were the first inhabitants in the Sahara region. The Hausa (14th century), Zerma (17th century), Gobir (18th century), and Fulani (19th century) also established themselves in the region now called Niger.
Niger was incorporated into French West Africa in 1896. There were frequent rebellions, but when order was restored in 1922, the French made the area a colony. In 1958, the voters approved the French constitution and voted to make the territory an autonomous republic within the French Community. The republic adopted a constitution in 1959 but the next year withdrew from the Community, proclaiming its independence.
During the 1970s, the countrys economy flourished due to uranium production, but when uranium prices fell in the 1980s, its brief period of prosperity ended. The drought of 1968–1975 devastated the country. An estimated 2 million people were starving in Niger, but 200,000 tons of imported food—half U.S.-supplied— substantially ended famine conditions.
The 1974 army coup ousted President Hamani Diori, who had held office since 1960. The new president, Lt. Col. Seyni Kountché, chief of staff of the army, installed a 12-man military government. A predominantly civilian government was formed by Kountché in 1976.
In 1993, the countrys first multiparty election resulted in the presidency of Ousmane Mahamane, who was then deposed in a Jan. 1996 coup. In July, the military leader of the coup, Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, was declared president in a rigged election. Considered a corrupt and ineffectual president, Maïnassara was assassinated in April 1999 by his own guards. The National Reconciliation Council, responsible for the coup, kept its promise and held democratic elections; in Nov.
That issue was and is police brutality.
And while I know that Whites, both male and female, are all too often victimized by unprofessional or brutal police acts, the most egregious instances of police misconduct are those faced by Black Americans and, specifically, African American men.
The paradigm and historical analogy that is closest to this problem of police use of illegal or excessive force, including deadly force, would be to recall the days when Black Americans were killed extra-legally by lynchings.
The major Senate and midterm elections should teach all Americans, especially Democrats, one thing about the nature of the 21st century American electorate: Democrats do not win without Black voter turnout.
Perhaps, the silence of the Democratic candidates on the issue of police brutality will be the same silence America will also hear on Election Day, 2020.
