In 1945 EBONY was launched to create visibility for Black Americans, who were invisible in the white press at the time — unless they committed crimes.
In the last 30 days, we have seen the modern-day lynching of Ahmaud Arbery, which was encouraged by and then initially covered up by the Glynn County Police Department and District Attorney’s office.
Last week in Minneapolis, we saw a representative of this country’s law-enforcement lynch George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes — to which Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said, “There is other evidence that does not warrant a criminal a charge.”
The President’s controversial comments, including calling protesters “THUGS” are only the latest examples of the President choosing to stoke long-standing racial divides rather than trying to comfort a hurting community, a reality at odds with his campaign’s effort to court black voters.
In response to this sequence of events, EBONY is orchestrating a virtual Town Hall for June 5th with Equal Justice Now, Attorney Ben Crump, Al Sharpton, the ACLU, the NAACP, the National Business League, and the National Baptist Convention of America.
