Shortly after last year’s election, I hopped into a Lyft and struck up a conversation with the driver. As we talked, the topic inevitably turned to politics. He confidently told me that he didn’t vote — not because he supported Donald Trump, but because he didn’t like Kamala Harris’ résumé.
Senator Cory Booker, the senior Democrat from New Jersey, delivered the longest speech in U.S. Senate history, speaking from 7 p.m. on March 31 to 8:05 p.m. on April 1, 2025. In honor of the late civil rights leader and Representative John Lewis, he dedicated the 25-hour and 5-minute speech to the pursuit of “good trouble,” drawing national attention.
A group of African American people protest racial injustice. Photo courtesy of NNPA By April Ryan As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post
A crowd was on hand at a city park in Georgia Saturday to witness the unveiling of a large bronze statue of the late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis that stands in the same spot as a contentious Confederate monument that was dismantled four years ago.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Dozens of state legislatures introduced bills to restrict the practice of voting by mail. Other states have begun aggressively removing voters from the rolls and re-drawing Congressional maps blatantly designed to silence the Black vote.
When former Ambassador Andrew Young turned 80, the late Congressman John Lewis spoke of his contributions to the city of Atlanta and the world, “He has been a voice for what is right, fair, and just. Young helped make America and the world a better place.”
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.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, will join a Congressional delegation to San Diego to participate in the Christening Ceremony for the USNS John Lewis, the first ship in the T-AO Fleet Oiler Program. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is leading the Congressional delegation. The program is dedicated in honor of the late Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. The ceremony will take place July 17, 2021, one year after the Congressman’s passing.
While some of us are spending our time watching the news or wondering how we are going to survive the pandemic, now is the time to understand the battles we are in and determine what we must do individually and collectively.
YouthBuild Champions are congressional leaders who advocate for funding and policies that benefit opportunity youth and their communities. Every year, these elected officials author and lead the signing campaigns of Dear Colleague letters that signal Congress’s strong bipartisan, bicameral support for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) YouthBuild program.
This year, we said goodbye to amazing men and women, who left lasting legacies with their work, talents and life.
President Trump wants to paper over the living wound of racism. He’s issued Executive Orders and established a new national commission designed to whitewash our history—and deny the daily reality of being Black in America. He actively appeals to white supremacists and fans the flames of hatred and division in our country, because he thinks it benefits him politically. He ignores the most basic job of every president: the duty to care for all of us, not just those who voted for him.
The Democratic and Republican Conventions have always been a sight to behold. Most of us wait in anticipation over all the fanfare and excitement that happens when they occur. Every four years, leaders and party supporters come together to rally around their chosen candidate and to help the voters get to know a little more about the candidates and their families. The pandemic has made all of us adjust to a new way of doing things and this even includes political conventions. Everything has gone virtual. Or at least we are told that is how things should be; but there will always be those that do not follow the rules.
Even in the darkest of times, we can hear our friend and mentor John Lewis: “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”
August 6 was the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. If the constitutional amendments passed after the Civil War — the 13, 14 and 15th Amendments — were the “second founding” of democracy in America, the Voting Rights Act, which after nearly a century of segregation gave legal effect to the 15th Amendment that outlawed discrimination in the right to vote, should be considered the “third founding.”