When it comes to public service, Mark Ridley-Thomas has done it all. He’s served on the nonprofit, city, county and state levels. The only thing left is national office.
The Civic Action Fellowship program, which involves eight universities across California, was unveiled by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California Volunteers office during a Feb. 10 news conference at the Capitol in Sacramento.
On Monday, just one day after it was announced that LeBron James was named the Associated Press’ Male Athlete of the Decade, James was celebrating his 35th birthday. That honor comes not only with his athletic achievements but entrepreneurial skills and community endeavors such as opening the I Promise School and producing the sequel to “Space Jam.”
There’s no state in America quite like California. In troubled times for the Nation, California is where the American Dream is alive and well. The most diverse state in the world’s most diverse democracy, California is big-hearted, thriving, inclusive and bold.
On October 23, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsome met with the African American Empowerment Committee, a coalition of African American businesses and civic leaders from Northern and Southern California for a second time at the offices of Gene Hale, President of G&C Equipment Corporation and Chairman of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce (GLAAACC) to discuss a range of issues impacting the African American community, including but not limited to criminal justice reform, homelessness, education, government appointments, and business process reforms for state agencies dealing with providing economic fairness to the African American community. The committee is chaired by Alice Huffman and Pastor Edgar Boyd. Gene Hale is the chair of the small business committee.
Following Governor Gavin Newsom’s signed multiple legislative rulings to aid in the war against homelessness, LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg reconvened to discuss the matter.
When the emancipation proclamation freed African-American slaves some 32 years later, slave-holding states like North Carolina did not automatically throw out the harsh anti-literacy legislation they had been using to oppress slaves. Those laws, the Jim Crow ones that followed, segregated schools, under-funded school districts – as well as other economic, political and social factors – all played a role in erecting barriers to a quality education for African Americans over the decades that followed.
This is a direct appeal to Governor Gavin Newsom, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez and our entire state legislature. I’m writing this on behalf of the more than 20 African American-owned newspapers that operate in cities and towns across California. As the leaders we’ve elected to represent and protect the interests of all Californians, we are asking each of you to search your hearts, look beyond blind spots, step in, and do the one thing that will prevent Assembly Bill 5 from putting the Black press in California out of business. That is: Exempt the contract couriers who deliver our newspapers
When Coleen Sykes Ray started an organization with her daughter in 2015 to help homeless women, the Stockton, California resident had no idea she, too, would be homeless four years later.
African Americans have long been punished for appearing in professional or academic settings while wearing their natural hair. In 2010, a Black woman in Alabama refused to cut her dreadlocks, and a job offer disappeared. Last December, a video of a Black high school wrestler who was forced get his dreadlocks cut off before a match, went viral. Not long ago, a Google search for “unprofessional hair” returned results mostly featuring Black women wearing their natural curls or braids.
Now serving her second term, Assemblywoman Burke has been writing legislation to address the nation’s flawed access to resources like reproductive health, adequate and affordable healthcare and environmental justice. Burke has invested much of her work in an initiative to end childhood poverty and her influence towards this cause is visible in Governor Newsom’s budget which includes proposals to directly address child poverty and support families in breaking the cycle of poverty through work and education, including a grant increase for the lowest income families served by the CalWORKs program.
In May, the state Assembly voted 44-19 in favor of the legislation.
If passed and signed into law, AB 1505 would strip away the existing right charter schools have to an appeal process if a local school board denies its petition for authorization or renewal.
Laster joined leaders of the California chapters of two prominent civil rights organizations, the National Action Network (NAN) and the National Urban League (NUL), for the meeting held at the Governor’s office at the Capitol. Both groups have been outspoken opponents of the legislation.
Alva Vernon Johnson, 51, of Elk Grove, has been appointed director of the California State Lottery. Johnson was director of intergovernmental affairs for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians from 2016 to 2018.
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) announced today it has awarded $5 million in Veterans’ Employment-Related Assistance Program grants to 11 organizations to help approximately 1,200 veterans secure jobs in growing industries.
Senator Holly Mitchell was among the speakers at the End Child Poverty Bus Tour. At right are Assemblymember Autumn Burke, L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who all delivered remarks during the event held at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center on May 17. (Modern Romance Photography) Political heavyweights united on May 17 to tackle a serious topic – eliminating poverty among youth and families in California. Officially called the End Child Poverty Bus Tour, the elected officials joined with community members to encourage state legislators to implement a comprehensive plan to remove nearly 2 million of California’s children from