By Freddie Allen, NNPA Washington Correspondent  WASHINGTON (NNPA) – After suffering  a major setback last year in the Supreme Court, voting rights advocates are buoyed by a decision last week by a federal judge in Wisconsin striking down the state’s voter ID law as racially discriminatory. John Ulin, a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP and […]

By George E. Curry, NNPA Columnist  WASHINGTON (NNPA) — A revised plan for major tobacco companies to purchase court-ordered ads to admit that they deliberately misled the public about the dangers of smoking would add nine White-owned newspapers to the list of publications carrying tobacco ‘apology’ ads but shut out more than 90 percent of […]

By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON — Amidst a roiling and mostly partisan debate over Washington’s global role, a survey released here Thursday suggests that President Barack Obama’s preference for relative restraint and multilateral — over unilateral — action very much reflects the mood of the voting public.The survey, which was conducted by prominent pollsters for both […]

By Marc Morial J  “The new Senate proposal to reform the housing finance system…lacks provisions to ensure that the housing finance system is fair and nondiscriminatory.”  Joint statement of the National Urban League and other major civil rights and housing advocacy groupsA new housing reform proposal slated for a Senate Banking Committee vote next week could […]

By Freddie Allen, NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) — As the 60th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education approaches, a new report by the Economic Policy Institute found that schools are more segregated now than they were in 1980.The U.S. Supreme Court’s May 17, 1954 landmark decision […]

WASHINGTON —In the United States, African American children continue to face more barriers to success than any other race, new research suggests.A new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation lists 12 categories that can contribute to a child’s success, including enrollment in preschool, living with two parents and distance from the poverty line. Under […]

By Farangis Abdurazokzoda  WASHINGTON — U.S. foreign aid is becoming increasingly outdated, analysts are suggesting.Rather, reforms to U.S. assistance need to focus on issues of accountability and country ownership, according to a policy paper released this week by Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), a prominent coalition of international development advocates and foreign policy experts.“Aid should […]

By George E. Curry, NNPA Columnist AUSTIN, Texas (NNPA) —With civil rights legends Andrew Young, John Lewis and Julian Bond and Jesse Jackson looking on, President Barack Obama on Thursday credited the Civil Rights Movement and landmark legislation signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s for paving the way for his becoming the […]

By Charles Moseley, Special to the NNPA from The Westside Gazette FORT LAUDERDALE (NNPA) — Carlton B. Moore spent most of his life speaking truth to power in an effort to insure that those in need would not be ignored by those in authority.There’s an old adage that states, “Leaders are born, and not made.” If […]

By Jazelle Hunt, Washington Correspondent  WASHINGTON (NNPA) — If anyone thought the election of Barack Obama, or the rise of the multi-racial Millennial generation, marked the beginning of a post-racial America, a campaign spreading across college campuses has news for you.It began with I, Too Am Harvard, a theatrical performance by the Kuumba Singers of […]