“While we reported on the 73 million children in the U.S. in 2019, which is 22 percent of the nation’s population, we also note that 2020 was the first year in American history that a majority of children are projected to be children of color,” said the Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, the president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund.
“Though we face unprecedented challenges and threats to the safety and well-being of America’s children, we refuse to go backwards. No matter who holds the reins of political power, CDF will move forward in our mission to Leave No Child Behind and ensure that every child has a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage into adulthood,” Edelman said.
This past week, U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris delivered remarks at Spelman College, America’s oldest private, historically Black liberal arts college for women, as part of the school’s annual Homecoming weekend. Speaking to students from Spelman College and the Atlanta University Center, Harris emphasized the urgency of the current political moment, highlighted the importance of young women of color taking on leadership roles, and drew from her own experiences to suggest how young women can remain undaunted by the challenges ahead.
God’s spirit enveloped the California African American Museum as Los Angeles came out for a gospel music tribute to the legendary Aretha Franklin on Aug. 30. The “Queen of Soul” passed away in Detroit, Michigan on Aug. 16. The two-hour event, organized by L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and gospel music broadcaster Quaford Coleman, attracted more than 2,000 people who filled the museum’s interior and overflowed to hundreds outside the facility. In both places, the audience clapped, sang and shouted throughout the joyous celebration. Highlighting the tribute were selected songs from Aretha’s “Amazing Grace” album, which she recorded in 1972
I am so proud of the Freedom Schools scholars who have learned they are following in the footsteps of children and youths who were the foot soldiers and infantry of the Civil Rights Movement. Some of their stories from the Movement are well known: six-year-old Ruby Bridges in New Orleans walked through White mobs to attend school—even praying for those jeering at her; the Little Rock Nine; the four little girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. Thousands of children were on the frontlines of history. Whether sung or unsung heroes, we owe all of them a debt of gratitude.
The summit, museum and memorial are projects of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery-based legal advocacy group founded by attorney Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson won a MacArthur “genius” award for his human rights work.
Iconic physician, surgeon and medical researcher, Charles R. Drew was born in Washington, D.C.
Every day I wear a pair of medallions around my neck with portraits of two of my role models: Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. As a child I read books about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. She and indomitable and eloquent slave woman Sojourner Truth represent countless thousands of anonymous slave women whose bodies and minds were abused and whose voices were muted by slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and confining gender roles throughout our nation’s history. Although Harriet Tubman could not read books, she could read the stars to find her way north to freedom. And she freed not only herself from slavery, but returned to slave country again and again through forests and streams and across mountains to lead other slaves to freedom at great personal danger. She was tough. She was determined. She was fearless. She was shrewd and she trusted God completely to deliver her, and other fleeing slaves, from pursuing captors who had placed a bounty on her life.
Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, was honored with the Inaugural James M. Lawson, Jr. Humanitarian Award during Holman United Methodist Church’s 70th Anniversary Gala at the Omni Hotel on December 4. Holman Senior Pastor Kelvin Sauls presided over the sold-out commemoration, which featured entertainment by the Holman Quartet, the Read Lead/Holman Freedom School Scholars, the Holman Singers featuring Linda Broadus-Miles and Christian comedian J-Red. Aundrae Russell, host of KJLH Radio’s Stella Award-winning program, “Spread the Word,” emceed the event. Holman’s 70th Anniversary Gala and the Inaugural James M. Lawson, Jr. Humanitarian Award were the
The year was 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been assassinated and riots had broken out all over the country. Twenty-nine year old Marian Wright Edelman went into schools to talk to children to tell them not to loot and risk their future by getting arrested. Edelman vividly recalled a little boy, about 11 or 12, who looked her straight in the eye and said “‘Lady, what future? Ain’t got no future. Ain’t got nothing to lose.’ I’ve been trying for the last 40 years to prove that boy’s truth wrong.” As a Black child growing up in
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the world’s leading peace and justice advocates, has called Bryan Stevenson “America’s Nelson Mandela.”