A growing list of costs are being passed on to inmates and their families By Eric Easter Urban News Service As incarceration rates continue to grow around the United States, the enormous costs of some prison services are increasingly being paid by those who can least afford it –- the families of inmates. In 2001, […]
The Smithsonian’s African American Museum is a “Living” Testament
By Eric Easter Urban News Service The just-opened National Museum of African American History and Culture is a work-in-progress — in every way. Surprisingly, this is its best asset. In one way, that description is literal. On Media Day, less than 10 days before its grand opening, the museum’s grounds still were littered with the […]
Once-Hot Artists’ Palettes Stay Cool Through Campaign 2016
By Eric Easter “If I’m 100 percent honest, I’ve tried hard to make a Hillary poster, but I can’t figure out where to start,” says Los Angeles-based graphic artist Charles White. “There’s no strong word or theme that sparks my imagination.” White is one of many creators who say that the 2016 race between Hillary […]
Carla Hall is Renewing the Business of Soul Food
By Eric Easter Urban News Service Partly by design, partly by accident, TV chef Carla Hall is becoming the new face of soul food. Hall launched her first Southern Kitchen in Brooklyn last month. This new venture features the chef’s version of her hometown signature dish, “Nashville hot chicken.” The highly anticipated Smithsonian Museum of […]
Thomas Moorehead Rolls into the World of Ultra-Luxury
by Eric Easter Urban News Service The world’s first African-American Rolls Royce car dealer got there through hard work and perseverance, but only after disappointing his family. Thomas Moorehead’s parents thought the key to respectability was a Ph.D. Both teachers, they lived by an old-school axiom that the one thing you never can take away […]
Artist Misses New Orleans 10 Mardi Gras Since Katrina
by Eric Easter Urban News Service Jennifer Renee Johnson desperately misses New Orleans during Mardi Gras. But the New Orleans she misses, she says, no longer exists. Johnson is one of thousands of native New Orleanians who, in this 10th Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina, have yet to move back after fleeing the 2005 disaster. […]
Could Big Data Reduce The Prison Population?
Technology Could Prove As Important As Legislation by Eric Easter Urban News Service Better use of technology and data could help solve the problem of mass incarceration. That’s one conclusion that can be drawn from the work of Steven Matthews, a technology consultant who, until recently, was Chief Information Officer for the Illinois Department of […]
Eleven Steps to Better Money Management in 2016
By Eric Easter Urban News Service Savings, bills, plans and budgets. These things rarely appear on Yuletide shopping lists. Yet the days and weeks after Christmas and into the New Year often yield a frightening wake-up call. For many people, getting their finances in order is second only to losing weight among their New Year’s […]
The Day Black People Became “African-American”
By Eric Easter Urban News Service The debate over what black people call themselves spans centuries. While people think it is a relatively recent term, “African- American” has always had a prominent place in that debate. In fact, Yale scholar and associate librarian Fred Shapiro found evidence of the term’s usage in a document as […]
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The Million March and O.J. Simpson’s Acquittal – Which Had More Impact?
TWO ANNIVERSARIES. TWO OUTCOMES. By Eric Easter Urban News Service This October, the nation will recognize the 20th anniversary of two cultural touch points, but in very different ways. On Oct. 10, the Million Man March will be both celebrated – appropriately – as a milestone on the road to fairness and justice, then refashioned […]