State & Local News
1965 shooting shows pitfalls of closing old cases
On a late-fall evening 46 years ago, gunfire shattered the revelry at a nameless juke joint in this rural crossroads. When the smoke cleared, Joseph Robert McNair, a black father of six, lay at the feet of the community’s white constable. That McNair was dead, and that Luther Steverson had killed him are about the [...]
Report: Black Dems lose clout in southern capitols
Black lawmakers have lost clout in Southern state capitols as their overwhelming allegiance to the Democratic Party has left them without power in increasingly GOP-controlled state legislatures. The nonpartisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies says in a report issued Friday that despite Barack Obama’s election as president, black voters and elected officials in [...]
Political activism is part of black Boston’s DNA
Bay State Banner – The idea of public service is nothing new among Boston African Americans. In 1867, Edwin Walker and Charles Mitchell were elected to the state legislature and became the first black state legislators in the United States. From then until 1902, 13 different black men served at various times in the general [...]
Sign of The Times: Why Black Mayors Are Putting Extras On Non-Blackness
The Atlanta Post – For newly elected African American mayors, the latest political delicacy on the electoral menu is putting a disingenuous lid on their Blackness. Not saying that they are straight denying who they are, but recent trends suggest a sign-of-the-times move and 21st century motivation. Political survival dictates the need for new black [...]
Census: Fewer black children in biggest US cities
A catastrophic flood emptied New Orleans of much of its black youth. Powerful social forces may be doing a similar thing to places like Harlem and Chicago’s South Side. Over the past decade, the inner-city neighborhoods that have served for generations as citadels of African-American life and culture have been steadily draining of black children. [...]
