On a day that should symbolize freedom, resilience, and reflection, President Donald Trump chose disrespect. This Juneteenth, rather than honoring the long-overdue recognition of the end of slavery in the United States, Trump took to social media to lament the existence of “too many non-working holidays.” His press secretary made sure to note that the […]
By Edrea Davis – It’s profoundly fitting that Congressman Charles B. Rangel—a man who embodied service, patriotism, and public duty—passed away on Memorial Day at age 94. Born in 1930 during the height of Jim Crow, to a Puerto Rican father and African American mother, Rangel’s journey was a quintessential American story of resilience, purpose, […]
Ancestral Nana is back—with a history lesson we can’t afford to ignore. From the Black Codes and Jim Crow to fast-tracking white South African “refugees” while rejecting Black and Brown asylum seekers, Nana connects the dots between America’s past and its present. She’s here to say what needs to be said: This isn’t new. It’s […]
“He can try to rewrite history, but we have the receipts. And as the Smithsonian’s exhibits magnificently illustrate, African Americans have survived — and overcome — much worse than the frothings of a puffed-up president who fancies himself a king.” — Eugene Robinson By Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League – The history […]
By Edrea Davis – In the 1930s, Germany didn’t collapse overnight or simply hand the reins over to Adolf Hitler. It crumbled slowly, legally, and with the consent of millions who watched democracy erode—believing their institutions were too strong to fail. Democracy gave way to dictatorship not through a sudden coup, but through laws, propaganda, […]
By Edrea Davis – Thanks to civil rights leader, Melanie L. Campbell, I had the privilege of being with Dr. Dorothy Irene Height at NCNW headquarters on the night Barack Obama was elected President in 2008. As the nation celebrated, I watched tears roll down her cheeks. “I never thought I’d see the day,” she […]