By Freddie Allen, NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) —The unemployment rate for Blacks (11.4 percent) and Whites (5.3 percent) remained unchanged from July to August, but the fact that Black unemployment is 2.4 percent higher than when the recession began five years ago is an indication that Blacks have the farthest to go to get […]

By Marc H. Morial “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”  —Fannie Lou Hamer, legendary civil rights activist and co-founder of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party   The funeral is over. The protests have died down. The lax and listless wheels of justice in Ferguson, Mo. are beginning to turn. Last […]

By Jazelle Hunt, NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) — As the nation’s families head back to school, they may notice that for the first time, elementary and middle school students of color will equal the percentage of White students, according to Department of Education projections.White student enrollment has steadily declined, as have birth rates among […]

By Jazelle Hunt, NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) — At noon on Saturday, August 9, Michael Brown, 18, and his friend, Dorian Johnson, crossed paths with Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson. By 12:04 p.m., Wilson had fatally shot Brown six times. His body was left out for hours as other officers responded to the […]

By Zafirah Mohamed Zein NEW YORK  (IPS) — Joe sits on newspapers spread on the sidewalk by the entrance to midtown’s Grand Central Station. His head rests in his hands, only looking up when coins from passersby clink into his paper cup.“A shelter is like a prison without guards,” he says, when asked why he […]

By Richard B. Muhammad, Special to the NNPA from The Final Call FERGUSON, Mo. (NNPA) — The National Guard has rolled in and out, but the pain and passion of people in the streets, in homes and in businesses remain and broken hearts still ache. Tear gas, rubber bullets, gas masks, gas canisters and armored […]

By Carey L. Biron WASHINGTON  (IPS) — The shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in the southern United States earlier this month has led to widespread public outrage around issues of race, class and police brutality.In particular, a flurry of policy discussions is focusing on the startling level of force […]

By Chris King, The St. Louis American ST. LOUIS — Jesse Jackson told The American he hopes that the U.S. Department of Justice sees the Ferguson Police shooting of Michael Brown on Saturday and resulting community violence as “systematic of a national crisis.”Jackson said, “It was a crime of injustice.” Jackson said.The injustice, he said, […]

By Peter Costantini SEATTLE (IPS) —In 1958, when New York State was considering raising its minimum wage, merchants complained that their profit margins were so small that they would have to cut their work forces or go out of business.  In 2014 in Seattle at hearings on a proposed minimum wage increase, some businesses voiced […]

By Freddie Allen, NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) —Black men are no better off than they were more than 40 years ago, due to mass incarceration and job losses suffered during the Great Recession, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Chicago.Derek Neal and Armin Rick, the co-authors of the study, […]