Dr. Saul E. Lankster II created a benchmark in American history. He became the first Black Firefighter in Compton, California. Today, Dr. Lankster continues to lift while he climbs as a National University (NU) Associate Faculty member that focuses on the progression of criminal justice.
“The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy. Free and fair elections that reflect the will of the American people must be protected and defended,” President Biden remarked during the Martin & Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast. “But many Americans, especially people of color, confront significant obstacles to exercising that fundamental right. These obstacles include difficulties with voter registration, lack of election information, and barriers to access at polling places.”
The police attack in Century City took place the year before a more famous LAPD abuse case involving motorist Rodney King. Millions saw the televised video of the police beating Rodney King as he lay on the ground. When the police were acquitted by a mostly white jury, the verdict triggered the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest.
The Rev. C.T. Vivian, an early and key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who organized pivotal civil rights campaigns and spent decades advocating for justice and equality, died Friday at the age of 95.
“I feel lucky and blessed that I’m serving in the Congress… But there is a force that is trying to take us back to another time and another dark period,” warns congressman John Lewis. And he’d know.
Since age 17, this brave crusader has been at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Now at age 80, he’s an elder statesmen. Following his path lets audiences retrace the steps of an activism that has led to social change, even in the midst of great oppression. For that alone, former trial lawyer turned documentarian Dawn Porter’s (Trapped, Gideon’s Army) homage to one of our greatest heroes is a blessing and an inspiring lesson in American history.
“First, when you have a foreign government helping one of the parties, that’s a major problem, and it makes it more difficult,” Dean stated. “What Vladimir Putin is trying to do is not so much to support a person, but he’s really trying to eliminate any idea of truth. He’s attacking the country in a very clear and more dangerous way. He’s gone further than they even did during the Cold War. So, these are pretty big problems that we have to figure out how to overcome.”
The bill would require all states to get federal approval for election changes known to disproportionately affect voters of color.
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Amelia Boynton Robinson, who died Wednesday in Montgomery, Ala. at the age of 104, is being praised as the ‘Rosa Parks’ of the Selma voting rights movement. Mrs. Boynton, as she was known throughout the movement, had been hospitalized since suffering a stroke in July. She was a courageous voting rights crusader who was brutally beaten on “Bloody Sunday” on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the first leg of the Selma to Montgomery, Ala. March that provided the impetus for passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B.