By George E. Curry, NNPA Columnist St. Louis County has 90 municipalities — ranging in population from 13 to nearly 52,000 — and most of them sustain themselves by targeting, fining and jailing poor Missouri residents, many of them Black, who are unable to pay traffic tickets. A “white paper” by ArchCity Defenders, a group […]

By George E. Curry Public opinion polls confirm a fact that has been documented in instances ranging from the O.J. Simpson verdict to recent events in Ferguson: When it comes to race, Blacks and Whites largely view events through a different set of lenses.Several recent polls provided yet more proof of this disheartening trend.According to […]

By Julianne Malveaux Except for the Good Lord, everybody has someone or something to “check” him or her. Unfortunately, President Obama has an unresponsive Congress to check him, and Supreme Court to do the same. Elected officials are checked by voters (when they vote), and the Securities and Exchange Commission usually checks corporate crooks. Reputable […]

By Marc H. Morial “Never did we think we would be planning a funeral, we were waiting on his first day of school. They robbed us of that.” Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown“In too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement. In too many communities, […]

By Bill Fletcher, Jr., NNPA Columnist Under other circumstances one could simply ridicule the explanations offered by the Ferguson police regarding the killing of Michael Brown. To suggest that the killing was the result of the alleged theft of a $50 box of cigars or, for that matter, an angry exchange in connection with jaywalking, […]

By George E. Curry  Occasionally, police officers behave in such as dastardly manner that it captures international attention. There was the 1997 famous video of four White LAPD officers taking turns clubbing and kicking Rodney King nearly beyond recognition after a high-speed automobile chase. In 1999, on the opposite coast, an unarmed, 23-year-old Amadou Diallo […]

By Julianne Malveaux It doesn’t matter if you are state legislator or an alderman, a journalist or a local leader. If you are in Ferguson, Mo., you won’t get any respect. You can be the uncle of a victim whose body was left to lie on the street for several hours and you will not […]

By George E. Curry  Although the continent of Africa has 54 countries, the nation that received the most attention at  last week’s US-Africa Summit in Washington, D.C. was China. That’s because the U.S. is trying to catch up with and surpass the Asian superpower.Africa has six of the top 10 fastest-growing economies: Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, […]

By Marian Wright Edelman Bishop Minerva Carcaño, the Los Angeles Area Resident Bishop of the United Methodist Church, is acting with urgency. Along with more than 100 other religious leaders and activists, she was arrested for civil disobedience at the White House for protesting the deportation of the unaccompanied children crossing our border after fleeing […]

By Marc H. Morial “The purpose of the law is simple…those who are equal before God shall now also be equal in the polling booths, in the classrooms, in the factories, and in hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, and other places that provide service to the public.” —President Lyndon B. Johnson, July 2, 1964  July 2 […]