Commentary

By Janice “Jay” Johnson The health care repeal that Republicans are pushing through Congress is a direct attack on the lives of black people throughout the country. Just as these right-wing politicians are pushing us out of the voting booth, they want to push us out of doctor’s offices and hospitals, further into medical debt,…

By Nicole Sahbaee In the next week, I will be closing my time as a summer intern at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and beginning my final undergraduate year at Howard University. I’ve learned more about public education at the National Alliance in two months than I have in the past year. However,…

By Dr. Marjorie Innocent, NAACP Senior Director of Health Programs Black Churches are more than places of worship. They are the vibrant hearts of the African-American community that bring the Gospel into our lives, inspire faith, grace, love and mercy and foster a deep commitment to service. For centuries, Black Churches and faith leaders have been…

By Jesse Jackson Candidates say campaigns are about articulating programs, issues and priorities. But people vote for candidates based on how that person makes them feel. Consciously or unconsciously, elections are about giving voice to values. Voters are moral proxies who want to know that a candidate or elected official truly cares about them — that…

By Charlene Crowell (NNPA Newswire Columnist) No one ever said that higher education wouldn’t cost money. Across the country, tuition is steadily rising and students are taking longer to pay off their student loans. Today, 44 million consumers share $1.4 trillion in borrowed student debt – more than double what it was in 2008. On…

By James Clingman An excellent example of the impact our history has on the way we are today, especially economically, can be found in an article titled, The Reluctant Entrepreneurs, by Joel Kotkin, author of the book, Tribes. The feature discusses several reasons for Blacks not going into business and being surpassed in this area…

By James Clingman I often use the phrase, “Our history is our future,” to express the fact that everything we need to do today, vis-à-vis economic empowerment, has been done before by African Americans in this country.  Just look back at what Black people built in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Durham, North Carolina and Tulsa, Oklahoma’s…

By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. In his perverse fixation on overturning all things Barack Obama, President Donald Trump now turns his attention to Cuba, the island located 90 miles off our shore. Reports are that the president plans to travel to Florida to announce that he will reverse Obama’s opening to Cuba, reinstate restrictions…

By Marian Wright Edelman  Summertime, and the livin’ is easy Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high Oh your daddy’s rich and your ma is good-lookin’ So hush, little baby, don’t you cry. – Lyrics to Summertime, sung by Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald knew a lot about the haves and have nots. She grew…

By Julianne Malveaux (NNPA Newswire Columnist) I could not be more proud of the students at Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU) than if I had raised them myself. Responding to the university’s very late selection of Education Secretary Betsy for the spring commencement speaker, graduating seniors chose to turn their backs on a woman who described HBCUs…