“The death of Michael Brown is heartbreaking, and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family and his community at this very difficult time. As Attorney General Holder has indicated, the Department of Justice is investigating the situation along with local officials, and they will continue to direct resources to the case as needed. I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions, but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country, to remember this young man through reflection and understanding. We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. Along with our prayers, that’s what Michael and his family, and our broader American community, deserve.” – President Barack Obama
Category Archives: Current and Historical Events
Why we Must Reform the NCAA
On college campuses across America this month, familiar sights and sounds have started up again as the college football world is now into thrust of fall camp. It is a time where hungry freshmen and sophomores seek to dethrone their upperclassmen teammates on the depth charts and battle-tested seniors look to cement their legacy.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Reflections of a Generation Xer
I was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1973. My parents were immigrants from Guyana, a small Caribbean country on the northern coast of South America and they always believed in the American reality: that working hard, being a good person and staying conscientious were virtues with guaranteed dividends. They believed in the morality of American public discourse and in the relevance of the individual vote in local and national political conversations. I can remember overhearing my father and his friends as they spent hours discussing American culture, politics, and social change. It was, after all, the 1970’s. And those conversations planted seeds which would later set me on the path to pursue justice; social, political and otherwise.
Bridging the Intercontinental Leadership Divide: African Energy Association to Host Inaugural Dinner
“Africa is the untold story, and could be the big story, of the next decade” says Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola. And, he couldn’t be more correct.
On Tuesday, August 5th, 2014 The African Energy Association will take its place on the world stage by hosting its inaugural African-US leadership awards dinner at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. and will highlight the over $300 billion dollar opportunity in the African energy sector. This highly anticipated event will commemorate the renowned accomplishments of awardees Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Mr. Benedict Peters, Executive Vice President of Aiteo Group, and Dr. James Mwangi, CEO and Managing Director, Equity Bank Group,who have each been instrumental in tackling Africa’s energy challenges and championing global interfacing within the continent.
Connecting Youth With Opportunities to Influence Social Change
I recently took a road trip through several of the states that were fraught with injustice during the Civil Rights Movement. One of our pit stops was Birmingham, Alabama where we visited Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the site of one of the most horrific bombings of that time period and the adjacent Ingram Park, a staging location for many civil rights demonstrations.
Fifty Years of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Progress, Problems and the Way Forward
In July 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson would enact Public Law 88-352, an act cited by Congress as the “Civil Rights Act of 1964.” This act would outlaw discrimination in hiring and discharging, and more generally, in many forms and outlets based on race, color, religion sex or national origin. The desegregation of public education and non-discrimination in federally assisted programs were also provisions within this act – and so was the purported protection of the right to vote. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 asserted that:
Lessons from Freedom Summer: Creating Pathways to Early Learning Success
The Supreme Court rendered its historic decision to end de-jure segregation in public schools 60 years ago. Yet, de-facto segregation persists. According to a study conducted by the Brookings Institute, high-performing schools are located in communities with homes costing 2.4 times more than homes in communities with low-performing schools. With strong correlations between low performing schools and discriminatory zoning laws, it is important to note that low performing schools can be eradicated by expanding affordable housing options in all neighborhoods.
Lessons From The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
Fifty years ago, a coalition of organizations initiated the Mississippi Freedom Project, more popularly known as Freedom Summer. In the summer of 1964, hundreds of organizers descended on the South from cities in the North and bubbled up from local communities to engage in what would become a massive, multi-year effort to expand the vote for disenfranchised African Americans under the thumb of the Jim Crow laws of the day. Though stained by the wave of horrific violence that brought about the tragic murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia and Mississippi, Freedom Summer stands as another example of the power of grassroots organizing. This historic effort has undoubtedly set the standard for high level voter registration campaigns that shift the balance of political power.
Juneteenth
Slavery has always been a contradiction in the American cultural matrix. As the United States affirmed its independence and sovereignty, the humanists that were involved in constructing the Declaration of Independence asserted our collective human-centered prerogatives. As such, the Declaration of Independence reads in part that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Reflections of the “I, Too, Am” Campaign
As a doctoral student at Berkeley committed to addressing issues affecting minorities on our campus and in the broader community, I recently participated in the “I, Too, Am Berkeley” campaign. The campaign was a fragment of a nationwide “I, Too, Am” campaign, which has been widely discussed for its unique approach to acknowledging, challenging, and combating racial bias that occurs on predominately white campuses and for its innovative strategies for empowering minority students. The campaign attracted passionate students at schools including Harvard, NYU, Princeton, and UW-Madison.