More than 150 years after slaves were freed in the U.S., voters in five states will soon decide whether to close loopholes that led to the proliferation of a different form of slavery — forced labor by people convicted of certain crimes. ... read more »

For three centuries lynching was a standard practice in the cruel treatment of Black men, women, and children in America. Even after slavery, Blacks from 1882 – 1959 were lynched on average every six days, totaling at least 4,733 brutal deaths, according to researchers at the Tuskegee Institute. ... read more »

Rochester school officials are investigating allegations that a white teacher told his class of mostly Black students to pick seeds out of cotton and put on handcuffs during lessons on slavery in a seventh-grade social studies class. ... read more »

“This has been a 30-plus year journey,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee declared. “We had to take a different approach. We had to go one by one to members explaining this does not generate a check.” Congresswoman Jackson Lee said this week that there’s now enough votes in the House for passage of the historic piece of legislation. ... read more »

“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”― Frederick Douglass ... read more »

The Rev. Amos C. Brown is vice-chair and the senior member serving on the nine-member California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. ... read more »

In June, California launched the nation’s first Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans this year.   The nine-member committee was established to meet the requirements of Assembly Bill ( ... ... read more »

During and exclusive interview with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Cedric Richmond, says that the deliberate misinformation published by news outlets and posted on social media is meant to undermine the President and Democrats. Notably, the dubious accounts aim to suppress the Black vote further, Richmond declared. ... read more »

During its third meeting, California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans looked at reasons formerly enslaved Black people migrated to the Golden State -- and detailed setbacks they faced after arriving. During the period historians dub the “Great Migration”– which lasted from the early 1900s through the 1970s – approximately six million Black Americans relocated from Deep South states to Northern, Midwestern, Eastern and Western states. Significant numbers ended up in California, escaping Jim Crow laws and racial violence and seeking economic opportunity. ... read more »

April Grayson, a policy associate for the Young Women’s Freedom Center and a formerly incarcerated Black woman, who spent 17 years behind bars, said she can’t wait to see the day when the language in Article 1, Section 6 of California’s Constitution is off the books. ... read more »

  These conversations about resurgent racism bring to mind the Greek mythological many-headed snake-like monster that, if you cut off one of its heads, would grow back two more in its place. And only the god-like superhero, Hercules, could kill it. But racism is real, not a myth, in spite of fervent and faithful denials by its most devout, delusional and passionate practitioners. ... read more »

A French activist for Black rights went on trial in Paris on Monday for defacing a statue of a historical figure from France's colonial, slave-trading past, calling the protest a political act to denounce deep-seated racism. ... read more »

The nonprofit legal organization committed to exonerating wrongly convicted individuals also noted that Black people are more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder when the victim is White. Among Black people exonerated of murder convictions, approximately 31 percent were wrongly convicted of killing White people. However, only 15 percent of homicides by Black people involve White victims, the National Registry of Exonerations reported. ... read more »

“The impact of slavery and its vestiges continues to affect African Americans and indeed all Americans in communities throughout our nation,” Jackson Lee remarked. “This legislation is intended to examine the institution of slavery in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present, and further recommend appropriate remedies. Since the initial introduction of this legislation, its proponents have made substantial progress in elevating the discussion of reparations and reparatory justice at the national level and joining the mainstream international debate on the issues.” ... read more »

California's process for imposing the death penalty ``is now, and always has been, infected by racism,'' Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Monday in a brief filed with the state Supreme Court. ... read more »