Blog
That was the case in 1999, when the government settled a class-action suit brought by black farmers only to find that bureaucratic foul-ups left tens of thousands of farmers out of the money. Congress passed a well-meaning fix in 2008, but it was flawed also; that made necessary the $1.25 billion settlement this year between the farmers and the Obama administration. Now the farmers are unable to collect their money because Congress has repeatedly failed to approve the measure.
"It's almost like 40 acres and a mule," Mr. Boyd says, referring to the government's Reconstruction Era promises to former slaves.
Native Americans have had an even tougher time securing remuneration for past injustices. Native American landowners have been cheated out of billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties by the government since the late 19th century. Late last year they entered into a $3.4 billion settlement agreement with the administration after an unusually contentious 14-year court battle. The settlement includes $1.4 billion for payments to individuals, a $60 million scholarship fund for Native American children and roughly $2 billion for the government to buy plots that will be turned over to the pertinent Indian tribe...
Seceratary of Labor, Hilda Solis discusses Labor Day and what the Department of Labor is doing to get America back to work.
As long as politicians are accountable to the corporations and lobbyists who finance their campaigns, they are never going to be accountable to the people who elect them. It's time to take the "For Sale" sign off the Capitol Lawn. Pass Fair Elections NOW!
Last Night BET premiered their first music documentary "My Mic Sounds Nice" about the history of representation of females in Hip-Hop and asked the question "Where is she now?" Something I have been telling people in the past 7 years that I have been rapping professionally is that Hip-Hop isn't dead it just needs a balance. It needs a queen.. but not just one "queen." It needs the balance of the feminine power.
As many of you may know, I have been touring and performing with the best of them, from Wu Tang Clan to opening up for Christina Aguilera to even headlining my own shows. I have an album in stores "God, Love & Music" in Best Buy, FYE, Walmart (Canada), and in all digital stores internationally. I have great followers on twitter/facebook/myspace, and other social networking sites. I do a lot in the community nationally by spearheading a national fundraising event called Hip Hop 4 Haiti. I assisted the Hon. Min.Louis Farrakhan and Martin Luther King III on bridging Indigenous nations together and training of cultural sensitivity. As well as a published writer in The Final Call newspaper and the list can go on and on.
The Katrina Commemoration Foundation, the Hip Hop Caucus, and over 105 endorsing organizations, commemorated the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on August 29th, 2010. The annual event began with healing ceremony in the Lower 9th Ward at the point where the levees broke, followed by a march and Secondline with the Hot 8 Brass Band, which arrived at Hunter's Field for a rally with performers and speakers.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed, President Barack Obama on Tuesday ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, telling millions who were divided over the war in his country and around the world: "It is time to turn the page."
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
From the Oval Office, where President George W. Bush first announced the invasion that would come to define his time in office, Obama said bluntly: "Our most urgent task is to restore our economy." It was a telling sign of the domestic troubles weighing on Obama's nation and his own presidency that he would put such emphasis on the dire state of U.S. joblessness in a major war address.
On August 29, 2010, we will mobilize in New Orleans, LA for the 5th year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Read about the full effort and what you can do to support at www.hiphopcaucus.org/katrina.
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu will hold a late-morning hearing Thursday about the lessons learned and the progress made in the five years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and large sections of the Gulf coast.
The hearing in Chalmette, Louisiana, will highlight the continuing challenges facing the state.
Watch the Hurricane Katrina 5th Anniversary Commemoration March and Rally Press Conference held yesterday in New Orleans:
By Daniel Kreps
for Rolling Stone
Wyclef Jean still plans to run for president of Haiti, despite an electoral commission having barred the singer. "After careful consideration and much soul-searching, I have made the decision to contest Haiti's board of election's pronouncement stating that I am ineligible to run for the presidency of the country," Wyclef said in a statement. "I will be seeking a solution through legal channels, and I urge my countrymen to be patient through this process."
The commission gave no reason for their decision, but Haiti's constitution requires that all presidential candidates live in the country for at least five years before starting a campaign. Jean has lived in the U.S. since he was a boy. (Fourteen other candidates were also rejected.) In an interview in this issue of Rolling Stone, Jean had left open the possibility that he would “challenge the judicial system if we feel like there's foul play.”
By Monique W. Morris for The Grio
As a nation, we have overcome many racial barriers, but in too many of our cities and towns, the ugly legacy of a "separate and unequal" doctrine haunts environmental policies that negatively impact low-income communities of color. This became painfully obvious five years ago, when the hurricane season ripped through the Gulf Coast and unveiled the racial, social, and economic inequities that lay hidden beneath good times in "The Big Easy."
The truth was on prime time--in New Orleans, de facto segregation was alive and there were entire communities that because of their built environment, were not able to flee, or recover from, disaster. But New Orleans was not alone. Poor communities across the nation, many of them communities of color--in the San Francisco Bay Area, rural Tennessee, industrial Midwest, or other parts of this country--continue to deteriorate from environmental racism.
Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports from the Gulf of Mexico on the impact of the oil spill.
By Paul Scott for No Warning Shots Fired
The date is August 28th 2010, and Glenn Beck stands before a crowd of 100,000 fellow Conservatives holding the severed head of a Martin Luther King Jr statue like a victorious Roman gladiator. With Sarah Palin by his side, he, triumphantly, yells, "free at last; free at last," as the civil rights leaders can only weep from afar...
There is an old saying that if you love something, set it free and if it doesn't come back it was never yours to begin with; so it is with Glenn Beck and the Right Wing's, upcoming, "Restoring Honor Rally" which is scheduled to take place this Saturday in Washington DC, commemorating the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "March on Washington."
Of course, some members of the civil rights generation are afraid that this is an attempt to kill their movement and are holding a counter rally called "Reclaim the Dream."
Continue Reading Article HERE
Spike Lee Returns to New Orleans for ‘If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise’ Premiers Tonight on HBO
August 23rd, 2010
by admin
Four years ago Spike Lee took his cameras to New Orleans to document the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as told by the people still dealing with its calamitous effects. The film Mr. Lee returned with was “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” a four-hour HBO documentary that won a Peabody Award and three Emmys. So as the fifth anniversary of Katrina approached, Mr. Lee went back to New Orleans earlier this year, hoping to tell the story of that city’s recovery and rejuvenation, starting with the Super Bowl victory of its underdog New Orleans Saints football team.
Instead, Mr. Lee’s new documentary, “If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,” which HBO will show on Monday and Tuesday nights, ended up with a tone that is largely and eerily similar to its predecessor. As the new movie revisits many people seen in “Levees,” who are still grappling with the fallout from Katrina, they are dealt a second disaster: the explosion of a BP drilling rig that flooded the Gulf Coast with oil– and sent Mr. Lee and his team scrambling to rework what they thought was a finished film.
By Jeff Mason for Reuters
Massachusetts (Reuters) - President Barack Obama revved up his effort on Saturday to curb corporate influence on political campaigns, chiding Republicans for keeping the public "in the dark" by opposing a reform bill.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said Americans are seeing the ramifications of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed companies and other groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising.
Democrats support a bill that would blunt the impact of the court's January ruling. Republicans have blocked it.
"As the political season heats up, Americans are already being inundated with the usual phone calls, mailings, and TV ads from campaigns all across the country," said Obama, who is vacationing on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard.
1112 16th Street NW, Suite 110; Washington, DC 20036