The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation’s foremost civil rights organization, has announced that Ambassador Patrick Gaspard will be awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal during the NAACP’s 110th Annual Convention taking place in Detroit, Michigan on July 24. ... read more »

California Treasurer Fiona Ma has appointed two prominent African American transportation experts, Mr. Frederick Jordan of San Francisco and Dr. Beverly A. Scott of Albany, to the California High-Speed Rail Authority Peer Review Group. ... read more »

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations issued the following statement after President Trump threatened a “full and complete embargo, together with highest-level sanctions” against Cuba. ... read more »

Those who feel America is a post-racial society tend to be either die-hard conservatives   or so naïve, they might believe there are snow-capped mountains in Florida.  But by any measure, public education, the criminal injustice system, poverty, etc., White privilege and its cohort racism, remain the prime barriers to Blacks receiving actual justice and equality.  ... read more »

Emmy Award-winning Steve James is one of America’s most respected documentarians, working in the field today.  In his new Starz doc-series “America to Me”— a 10-part look at race through the eyes of students, teachers and administrators at Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) — an elite, racially diverse public high school in a suburb west of Chicago, he gives all of the subjects the opportunity to let it all “hang out” so to speak.   ... read more »

“It is confidence in the men and women who administer the judicial system that is the true backbone of the rule of law.” — Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, 531 U.S. 98, Bush v. Gore [Dissent], December 12, 2000 ... read more »

If you could choose one artist to embody the African American experience of the 20th century, it would have to be the incomparable Miss Aretha Franklin. ... read more »

A few years ago, his Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, studied school discipline data and came to a troubling conclusion: African American students in the 2011-12 school year had been suspended or expelled at a rate three times higher than White students. ... read more »

The original goal of "net neutrality" was that internet service providers and governments would treat all data on the internet equally and not discriminate or charge differently based on the user, services, website, application, or device – in other words, it would provide an open internet. ... read more »

Let’s stop spending volumes of money on prisons ... read more »

Barack Obama’s presidency will be documented ad infinitum. However, Los Angeles is fortunate to have Erin Aubry Kaplan’s new book, I Heart Obama, a solid jumpstart on what is certain to be a mammoth field of chroniclers. ... read more »

President Obama might be better advised to improve his legacy by taking bold actions in these last days of his presidency ... read more »

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Incorporated (CBCF) recently announced that President Barack Obama will deliver his seventh and final keynote address at its 46th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) Phoenix Awards Dinner. The event is scheduled for 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The evening’s co-emcees will be Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and actress Sanaa Lathan, who has a new show premiering this fall on FOX. Honorary co-chairs of this year’s conference are U.S. Representatives Karen Bass of California and Lacy Clay of Missouri. ... read more »

She was the first woman to lead U.S. troops in wartime ... read more »

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock recently announced the fifth annual International Jazz Day, which will be celebrated around the world on April 30. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will host the 5th anniversary International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert at the White House on April 29 and the event will be broadcast on International Jazz Day as a one-hour primetime ABC television special, “Jazz at the White House,” on Saturday evening, and streamed on the United Nations, UNESCO, U.S. State Department and White House websites. ... read more »