President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, July 21, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about the incumbent’s fitness for office with the election just four months away. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump, and encouraged his party to unite behind her.
On July 17, 1944, during World War II, a massive explosion at a munition’s pier in Port Chicago, California, detonated over 4,600 tons of ammunition on a cargo ship. The blast killed 320 people, predominantly Black sailors, and injured around 400 others.
Tributes continued this week for the Rev. James Lawson Jr., an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and the longtime pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles, with President Joe Biden saying on June 11 that Lawson dedicated his life to “our country’s ideals.” Lawson died June 9 in Los Angeles after a brief illness at age 95.
The closure of Wadsworth Elementary School in 2013 was a blow to residents of the majority-Black neighborhood it served, symbolizing a city indifferent to their interests.
In addition to the investments, Garland unveiled plans to deploy federal resources and prosecutors to cities disproportionately affected by violent crime, including St. Louis, Missouri; Jackson, Mississippi; and Hartford, Connecticut. He said the targeted deployments aim to support local law enforcement agencies and enhance collaboration in tackling crime hotspots.
More than 700,000 immigrants living illegally in California will gain access to free health care starting Monday under one of the state`s most ambitious coverage expansions in a decade.
President Joe Biden is receiving wide applause among Black leadership for his executive order that attempts to assure that artificial intelligence (AI) remains within boundaries that respects civil rights and adheres to principles of democracy. But the question remains whether the executive order goes far enough to protect Black people – particular from abusive law enforcement.
“The vast majority of Americans want to avoid a shutdown. The faction who does not want any compromise may represent a small proportion of the public, but they hold outsized influence in the U.S. Capitol,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Thousands of Black leaders, freedom fighters, social justice advocates, and elected officials on state and municipal levels convened in Washington, DC for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 52nd Annual Legislative Conference on September 20-24.
President Joe Biden has tapped Shuwanza Goff — a veteran congressional aide who also served as his main point of contact to the House at the start of the administration — as his new director of legislative affairs, making her the first Black woman to be the White House’s chief emissary to Capitol Hill.
President Joe Biden vowed Friday, June 30, to push ahead with a new plan providing student loan relief for millions of borrowers, while blaming Republican “hypocrisy” for triggering the day’s Supreme Court decision that wiped out his original effort. Biden said his administration had already begun the process of working under the authority of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which he called “the best path that remains to provide as many borrowers as possible with debt relief.” In the meantime, since student loan-payment requirements are to resume in the fall, the White House is creating an “on ramp” to repayment and implementing ways to ease
Dr. William “Bill” Spriggs, an educator and one of the economists serving on the California Reparations Task Force, passed away on June 6. The chief economist for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and a former chairperson of the Economics Department at Howard University, Spriggs, 68, held several economic policy positions in the federal government, spanning two presidential administrations.
On his trip to California last week, President Joe Biden traveled to Monterey Park, approximately seven miles east of downtown Los Angeles, where he met with families of the victims of the mass shooting at Star Dance Studio, where 11 people were killed and nine injured during a Lunar New Year Celebration on Jan. 21.
Nearly 60 years after he was recommended for the nation’s highest military award, retired Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat, received the Medal of Honor on Friday for his bravery in the Vietnam War.
Last Friday marked two years of the Biden administration.