Blogs

William Spriggs

The Priority Must be Creating Jobs; Not Balancing the Budget

By William E. Spriggs

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued its economic outlook for the modern, democratic, industrialized economies at its annual meeting of member nation ministers.  It was mostly gloom.

The European members of the OECD are mired in a deep economic slump.  In 2012, the European members had a drop in Gross Domestic Product (the combined value of goods and services

The State of Equality and Justice in America" is a 20-part series of columns written by an all star list of contributors to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

A Constitutional Amendment is purposefully a hard thing to bring into existence. It requires an unambiguous statement from the American People that they want to make a fundamental change in society. They want to make an addition to the Constitution of the United States of America. It requires two-thirds of the House and Senate to approve of the proposal and send it to the states for a vote. Then, three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed Amendment. It has only been done 27 times in ou

Award-winning filmmakers Stafford and Judy Bailey, who created, produced and
directed the wildly popular film Blacks Without Borders: chasing the American
Dream in South Africa that premiered on Showtime teams up with Samad Davis a celebrated
filmmaker and co-creator/producer of the new international, competitive reality
series The Spirited Actor – The search for Africa’s Next Hollywood Star to
produce the highly anticipated new docu-series that follows the lives of
dynamic, entrepreneuri

The State of Equality and Justice in America" is a 20-part series of columns written by an all star list of contributors to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

William Spriggs

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Over last weekend, young people watched or read about President Obama speaking at Morehouse College and first lady Michelle Obama addressing the graduates of Bowie State University. Hopefully they were inspired by seeing so many young and gifted people finishing the course they chose to follow. Well, here is a little known set of facts.

Those colleges are both historically Black colleges-known as HBCUs-and they graduate a disproportionate share of the nation's Black sc

 •  Justin Danhof of the National Center for Public Policy Research challenged the CEOs of two of America's Fortune 500 companies to explain their lobbying against limiting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) "food stamp" purchases to food and beverage items with some nutritio

  • As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on what could constitute major reform of how the Voting Rights Act currently judges certain states and localities on race -- a case the NAACP vociferously opposes -- the civil rights lobby group will nonetheless hold a "premier" conference in a Florid

I was flipping through the TV channels last week and came across one of Spike Lee’s best movies, "School Daze."  This was a 1988 film written and directed by Lee.  The movie took an inside look at some of the internal issues that go on within the Black community—issues like dark skinned Blacks versus light skinned Blacks; Blacks that have “good”  hair versus Blacks with “nappy” hair; Blacks from wealthy families versus Blacks from poor families.   The movie was funny and serious at the same time

NBCI Calls on all Christians to Get Rid of 

Their Guns ---Unless You have sinned

Who is going to protect you - God or your Gun?

Washington DC - The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans churchgoers, calls on its membership to get rid of any weapons in their homes. The black church believes that having a weapon is a sin; as Christians we are asked to put their faith in God. God

Julian Bond

 • I have always suspected that racists didn't like being called out for their racism. Now I have proof.

When I told MSNBC's Thomas Roberts on May 14th that the Tea Party was "the Taliban wing of American politics", a firestorm erupted.

Arguing the IRS was correct to target them for extra scrutiny, I also said, "Here are a group of people who are admittedly racist, who are overtly political" and therefore worthy of IRS concern.

I was not prepared for the slew of angry email

Saint Sabina’s Peace Basketball League promotes relationship building

By Chinta Strausberg

Saint Sabina’s Peacemaker’s Monday night basketball games are not so much about who wins but how much love, peace and relationship building evolve from the bonding of youth who were once arch enemies in the neighborhood.

Last Monday, area youth wore either red or orange, blue or green, but when asked what do the colors stand for, without hesitation the referee said, “Peace, peace and more peace.”

And, tha

Kenwood Academy handcuffed by CPS rules

Accepting checks to help student compete in academic showdown

By Chinta Strausberg

Handcuffed by CPS rules banning the paying of out-of-state travel for students, Kenwood Academy business manager, Tanya Towns Thursday said 8^th grader Eva Lewis is short $1,950.00 of her $2,000 goal but the school is accepting checks on her behalf.

In an interview with this reporter, Towns explained the denial of the travel funds to Lewis, who along with others won the Illin

Before the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and 50th year since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, we need a think tank Are we in better shape 60-years later?

By Chinta Strausberg

In just a year, America will celebrate the 60th anniversary of two key U.S. Supreme Court decisions—Brown v. the Board of Education that legally struck down segregated schools and the laws that sanctioned that racist and unequal system and the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made possible by the Brow

Ben Jealous

A Message to the USDA: Continue to Respect Black Farmers

By Benjamin Todd Jealous

There is no way to make up for decades of discrimination that crippled the proud history of Black farm ownership in America. But we can do our best to move forward.

In 1999 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to settle the civil rights lawsuit Pigford v Glickman. The settlement promised to compensate thousands of black farmers who suffered racial discrimination at the hands of th

RAPPER JAY-Z LAUNCHES 2013 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FOR NEEDY STUDENTS

-- The deadline to apply is May 31, 2013. --

  • Carter Scholarship Fund (SCSF) provides individual grants ranging from $1,500 to $2,500 to every student who qualifies and reapplies yearly, from admission to graduation. The grant can be used to cover tuition expenses and related supplemental educational expenses such as books, lab fees, travel and select costs of living. All Shawn Carter Scholars are required to give back by c