Not many musicians can say they performed at a presidential inauguration. But Alicia Olatuja can proudly hold that title. Years ago she took the world stage as a performer at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. Since then, her career and life has changed.
There isn’t a day – I’m grateful to say – that when I walk out of my doors, I don’t run into somebody who says, ‘I can’t tell you what you’ve done for me. ‘You changed my life,’” Tyson shared with TIME. “It just confirmed for me that I was on the right track and I stayed on the right track.”
After patiently waiting in the wings as President Donald Trump used 90 minutes to deliver what was supposed to be a 45-minute State of the Union Address, Abrams provided a scathing Democratic rebuttal to the president’s highly-scripted speech to Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
In a televised interview, Moore revealed her cancer diagnosis and where she believes she’d be if it weren’t for former President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation which allows her to afford the treatments and necessary medication to fight the deadly disease.
A graduate of Howard University and a member of the AKA sorority, Harris’ rollout has been the most methodically of anyone who has entered the 2020 sweepstakes. Right down to the typography and campaign slogans, which are in the style of the historic 1970s campaign of the first Black woman ever elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm, Sen. Harris’ rollout has reached for clarity.
Writing to fellow clergy from a Birmingham Jail (The Negro Is Your Brother), Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – gravely concerned about all who were poor and experiencing inequality – said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
How sick is Coach Nick Saban? Alabama Crimson Tide are after the 44-16 upset by the Clemson Tigers in the game of the year. There is no looking back today. Coach Dabo Swinney, who should play him in a movie? The Clemson Tigers roared and Alabama was rolled. The Tide may have to look away. Clemson and the NFL Trevor Lawrence can’t wait for him. Here are some games are dock for this week are on tab. Alabama vs. Clemson. QB Philiphia Eagles’s Nick Folies miss him in rookie play.
The City of Chicago made its first full-throated response this week to a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of the Obama Presidential Center, saying the buildings would sit on land that wasn’t subject to restrictive public-trust laws.
Leadership is powerful. True leadership is an action word and is more about others than one’s self. Which means leaders have a responsibility that surpasses that of most others. I have often used the phrase with my children when they were growing up, and even now with myself: “Do you want to win the battle, or do you want to win the war?” When I look at examples of people who I consider true leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi, Gandhi, Jesus, and so many others,
The Georgia Democrat, who came about 60,000 votes shy of becoming America’s first Black female governor, refused to follow the traditional script for defeated politicians who offer gracious congratulations to their victorious competitor and gently exit the stage. Instead, Abrams took an unapologetically indignant tone that established her as a leading voting rights advocate.
Racism is as real as ever and Black lives have always mattered. However, most people, including many Blacks, deny or minimize the devastating effect of racism and tend to act as though somehow, Black lives are less valuable, even less sacred than white lives. The Black Lives Matter movement has the potential for strengthening sustainable unified Black leadership which would distinguish it from the many failed attempts to build a Black united front since the civil rights era. Hopefully, it will succeed, but remaining unapologetically Black is a daunting challenge and time will tell.
A story of a young boy from the South Side of Chicago, who eventually makes musical history sounds like something from a movie. But this isn’t a movie. This is real. This is the real life story of Anthony McGill.
There is so much damage done to memory and mission in our lives and to our sense of self by large and small concessions to the constant call to let go and move on regardless of what is lost or left behind. We sacrifice so much in our rush to forget, stay in style or keep in harmony with the official writers and rulers of society. However, whatever we are and will become, we must give appropriate attention to our history, in spite of all the counsel from outside to forget the past, worship the present and forfeit our future for things embraced and enjoyed now.
Former President Barack Obama says the November midterm elections will give Americans “a chance to restore some sanity in our politics,” taking another swipe at his successor as he raises his profile campaigning for fellow Democrats to regain control of the House.
City Council President Herb Wesson proposed the name change last year and noted that then-candidate Obama held a campaign rally at Rancho Cienega Recreation Center on Rodeo Road in 2007. The 3.5-mile street runs from near the Culver City border east to Mid-City and is not to be confused with upscale Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.