News — african americans

American economist Professor, Jeffrey Sachs exposes how America, its Western allies, the CIA and the defence industry have rigged the system to keep Africa from being prosperous. It is a stunning expose and rebuke to the present world order. When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land.They said ' let us pray' we closed our eyes when we opened our eyes, we had the bible and they had our land. This expose shows the extent to which Africa has been deprived of the chance of development at the expense of others. What do you think of this expose?

 Jholie Moussa, a 16-year-old African American girl, went missing in 2018. For two weeks, the police insisted that she left of her own free will, a run away. No further action was taken. Her body was later found in the woods. This is one example of hundreds of cases of black kids going missing and not much being done to address the case. Additionally, the press is more likely to highlight cases of white children going missing than black kids. Even though African-Americans making up significantly less of the US population than white people, black kids are much more likely to go missing than their white counterparts. What do you think?

After suffering numerous miscarriages and failed IVF attempts, Keia Jones-Baldwin, and her husband, Ricardro Baldwin decided to pursue alternative options to expand their family. In addition to one biological child, they took part in fostering children as well as transracial adoption. Despite the joy from expanding their family, they also share the challenges they've encountered along the way with raising a multiracial family. They are constantly viewed differently in public and scrutinized for adopting white children. Do you think society should view them any differently for their choice?

In 1837, Houston, Texas was incorporated and divided into four wards. The Southeast ward was named Third Ward and over time this area became an important center of African American-owned businesses and a hub for black culture.

Third Ward originally comprised the area east of Main Street and south of Congress Street. After the Civil War ended former slaves from the areas surrounding Houston began to move into Third Ward.  At the time, African Americans were forced to live on the outskirts of the ward but as whites moved to the suburbs, blacks began to purchase property in the heart of the ward. In 1872, influential African Americans led by Reverend John Henry “Jack” Yates raised $8,000 to purchase four acres of land which would become Emancipation Park, the first park for black Houstonians and home to the annual Juneteenth Celebration commemorating the liberation of African Americans from slavery in Texas.

Between 1910 and 1930 the African American population in the Third Ward exploded from 22,929 to 66,357. As a result of the rapid population growth, African American owned businesses increased along Dowling Street, which became the area’s main business corridor.

Dowling Street also became the center of Houston’s blues movement. Blues clubs were lined up and down the street and became places where artists from throughout the South and Southwest went to experiment and perfect their craft. The Eldorado Ballroom the self-styled “Home of the Happy Feet,” was the premier venue featuring artist like Ray Charles, and B.B. King, as well as local artist Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, and Jewel Brown.  African Americans came from all over East Texas to frequent the nightlife in Third Ward to have a fun night, allowing them a brief release from the everyday realities of the Jim Crow South.

The Third Ward was also home to other community landmarks such as Jack Yates High School, the second African American high school in Houston, the Covington House which served as Houston’s unofficial guest quarters for many prominent African American visitors, the Shape Community Center and Riverside Hospital, the first non-profit hospital for African Americans in Houston. Texas Southern University, founded in 1947, was the largest institution in the ward.

As African Americans left the South for better opportunities in the North in the first half of the 20th century, the Houston Chamber of Commerce, unlike most white urban leaders in the South, took out advertisements for “Heavenly Houston,” hoping to lure blacks to the city.  By the early 1950s, however, wealthy and middle-class blacks started leaving the Third Ward as they integrated formerly all-white residential areas. That outward migration continued through the 1960s and 1970s and now included business departures.  Those businesses that remained of the began to fail, leaving Third Ward a shell of its former prominence.

Today there are approximately 33,000 residents remaining in Third Ward and despite the efforts to gentrify the area, residents and community leaders have begun a concerted effort to preserve, protect and celebrate the rich history and heritage of Third Ward.

Farai Chideya is an American author, radio host, and Pop and Politics radio series producer and host. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to an American mother and a Zimbabwean father on July 27, 1969. Chideya explores and focuses her work on race relations, politics, and labor economics. She began to host her own podcast in September 2020, Our Body Politics, which highlights the experiences of women of color and how major political events and decisions impact their lives.

Chideya grew up in Baltimore’s Forest Park neighborhood and attended Harford Heights Elementary School’s gifted program. She later attended Western High School graduating in 1986. Four years later Chideya graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. During her time at Harvard, she wrote movie reviews for the Harvard Daily Crimson and received an internship at Newsweek‘s Boston office after graduation. She then worked for MTV News and CNN as a political analyst during the 1996 presidential race.

In 2006, Chideya became the host of NPR’s News and Notes. Her series included investigative stories on homelessness and drugs in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, interviews of then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama, and First Lady Laura Bush during the 2008 election. She previously worked for ABC News, CNN, and Oxygen Network, and made appearances on MSNBC and Real Time with Bill Maher.

Chideya and has also received multiple awards and honors, including a National Education Reporting Award, a North Star News Prize, and an award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association for coverage of AIDS. Chideya received a Knight Foundation Fellow from Stanford University in 2001 and Foreign Press Center Fellowship in Japan in 2002.

She released three nonfiction books related to race and ethnic studies: Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans (1995), Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters; The Color of Our Future (1999) and a new version of Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans (2004). Chideya also released her first novel, Kiss the Sky, in May 2009. The book follows a former black rockstar struggling to build a new career and highlights the Black Rock movement in New York.

During her career as an award-winning author, writer, professor, and lecturer, Farai has merged media, technology, politics, and race into her work. She is now a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. She was also a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in the spring of 2012.

The Battle of Nashville occurred on December 15-16, 1864 south of Nashville, Tennessee. The battle, between approximately 22,000 Union troops led by Major General George Henry Thomas and 40,000 Confederate troops led by Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, was considered a major Union victory in the Western Theater of the Civil War (the area west of the Appalachian Mountains). It was also significant because African American Union troops played a crucial role in the Union victory.

African American Union soldiers served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiments. The USCT were eight regiments—the 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 44th, and 100th—all units of the U.S. Colored Infantry led by white officers. An estimated 13,000 USCT soldiers participated in the Battle of Nashville, the largest number of black soldiers on any battlefield so far in the Civil War.

On December 15, 1864, the 13th USCT and the 2nd Colored Brigade (three regiments of black troops) were ordered to move in position for an assault on a Confederate battery position along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad near Nolensville Pike. The Confederates who expected a Union attack, positioned their artillery to open fire on the USCT brigade. Confederate troops also opened fire on the 13th USCT but they were guarded by earthworks. The 13th USCT used the earthworks as shelter as they exchange gunfire with Confederate forces. The 20th Indiana Battery arrived to give support to the 13th USCT men and with those reinforcements, they forced the Confederates to pull their cannons back.

The next day, Union Colonel Charles R. Thompson received orders to take his 2nd Colored Brigade to join General Thomas J. Woods’ 4th Corps. The 13th USCT along with the 12th and 100th USCT arrived at Peach Orchard Hill where the Confederates immediately opened fire at them but none of the USCT took any losses. General Wood told Thompson that he would attack the Confederate position at Overton Hill and requested three USCT regiments to support his left flank. Around 3:00 p.m., the Union troops began their attack. Thompson placed the 100th and 12th USCT in front and use the 13th as support. The 12th encountered a dense thicket which slowed their advance. Meanwhile the 100th USCT came upon several fallen trees that slowed their advance as well. Both regiments faced heavy fire from the Confederate troops occupying Overton Hill.

Colonel Thompson ordered the 12th USCT to take shelter to regroup. The 100th USCT and 4th Corps attempted to advance but were pushed back by the Confederates. The 13th USCT, however pushed past the 2nd Brigade and continued to advance up the hill while subject to withering fire from Confederate troops. With no support from the white Union troops or other black regiments, who fell back from their positions, the 13th USCT continued to storm the Confederate earthworks. The regiment took heavy casualties but failed to take Overton Hill. Despite that failure, Confederate troops were forced to withdraw.

The Union Army would go on to win the Battle of Nashville and end the Army of Tennessee (Confederates) as a fighting force in Tennessee. The battle, however, cost the 13TH USCT dearly. The 900-soldier regiment lost four white officers and 55 enlisted men killed along with 4 white officers and 165 enlisted men wounded. Their bravely in the battle however was acknowledged by their white counterparts and officers alike. General George H. Thomas, the Union commander who was a Virginian by birth and who previously harbored doubts about the black soldiers under his command, rode across the battlefield seeing the bodies of black Union soldiers and white Confederate soldiers lying together, said to his officers, “Gentlemen, the question is settled, negro soldiers will fight.”

On September 16, 1928, the Okeechobee Hurricane or Hurricane San Felipe Segundo, one of the most devastating tropical cyclones in Florida’s weather history and one of the ten most intense hurricanes to hit the United States mainland, came ashore near Palm Beach, Florida. It began as a tropical depression somewhere between West Africa’s Cape Verde and Senegal but by the time it crossed the Atlantic Ocean it was the first recorded Category 5 hurricane in the country’s history with winds at 140 miles per hour. The Okeechobee Hurricane came without the warning systems available today for such storms and state and local officials were barely prepared for the catastrophe. The impact of the storm was made worse by the ineffective communication and political posturing of Republican President Calvin Coolidge and Democratic Governor Doyle Elam Carlton, Sr.

The City of Palm Beach had by that point developed a reputation as the residential area of the wealthy and famous. West of Palm Beach into Palm Beach County there were extensive agricultural enterprises that specialized in sugarcane production. This labor-intensive crop depended on poor communities comprised primarily Bahamian migrant farm workers and African American sharecroppers, for labor.

While the Okeechobee Hurricane impacted all in Palm Beach County, the vast majority of the deaths from the storm came in the Bahamian and African American communities. Many of these people perished from the thrush of water rising as high as 20 feet and destroying weakened levees and dikes. Between 1,800 and 4,000 men, women, and children died and it was estimated that 75% of them were Black making this one of the deadliest natural disasters to impact African Americans and Afro-Bahamians. Officially there were 69 white victims and 674 black victims. This deadly hurricane caused more than $100 million in damage but the county and other local governments did not have resources to help the survivors or deemed them less important than the wealthy coastal population which was mostly white.

Blacks who survived were often forced to recover the bodies of relatives and friends who died in contaminated waters. Most of the black survivors were not even allowed to bury their family members on the soil of the white landowners where they worked and lived as sharecroppers. This hurricane revealed institutional racism and in particular how unfairly allocated governmental resources were held back from local black families.

While white residents buried their relatives and friends with dignity in coffins in local cemeteries or rested them peacefully on their properties, deceased blacks were stacked on top of each other and the corpses burned ostensibly to prevent the spread of disease. Local authorities then authorities bulldozed the scorched bodies, burying them in makeshift mass graves on lands that were later zoned for industrial use.

In 2000, the city of West Palm Beach, recognizing what callous disregard of black life and lack of respect for the dignity of the black deceased, purchased the main mass burial site in 2000, and eight years later, placed a historical marker there in acknowledgment of what had happened and to restore some dignity to those who suffered and perished in 1928.

Most Americans especially Black people and those of other ethnic minorities have lost faith in the police system due to police brutality. After the George Floyd incident, many protests erupted around the world to defund the police, but an HBCU has set up a police academy to recruit more minorities and to help restore the people’s faith in the force.

Lincoln University in Missouri, founded in 1866, is now the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to develop a police academy that will train police recruits to change the narrative surrounding policing.

The Lincoln University Law Enforcement Training Academy (LULET) was created by Police Chief Gary Hill and the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to entice more minorities from low-income backgrounds to make a difference both in their lives and the society by joining law enforcement.

“I thought what better way to recruit minorities by outing an academy right in the center of where we have a large minority community,” Hill said to CNBC.

Lincoln professors will train the recruits while police officers teach part-time at the institution. All it takes to be eligible for the 16-credit hour program is to be 20 years of age prior to the start date and a U.S. citizen. Applicants must also have a high school diploma or its equivalent certificate, a valid driver’s license, a vision of 20/40 with or without corrective lenses, an arrest record that is conviction free and ultimately, they must pass physical fitness requirements and have proof of health, per the Quintessential Gentleman.

The program includes a course on minority policing, which examines the history of police relations with Black communities. Hill said they are not in this to create soldiers but render community service. He said the police are not detached from the people they are policing; they are a part of the community thus their mission is to create community policing.

A licensing ceremony was held by Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri Department of Public Safety to approve the training academy last year. “As a former sheriff, I was honored to help establish the nation’s first law enforcement training academy at our very own Lincoln University, Missouri,” Parson wrote in a Facebook post. 

He added that he hopes this venture will inspire more HBCUs in the state and the nation to follow their lead, especially at a time when law enforcement agencies are seriously looking to diversify the force through their recruitments.

The licensing makes LULET the 20thth licensed police academy in Missouri and the 665th in the country. However, the police academy in its first year of operation will be under probation subject to an audit of the program by POST.

If the Peace officers are impressed by the training standards, then the program’s license will be extended for a standard three-year term, the College Post reported.

Upon completing the training program, the trainees can work in any police station across Missouri.

A 12-year-old Colorado boy, who was left in critical condition after reportedly partaking in a TikTok challenge that dared participants to choke themselves until they lost consciousness, has passed away, his family announced.

According to ABC News, the deceased, identified as Joshua Haileyesus, passed away last Saturday. This was 19 days after he was medically intubated and placed on life support.

A GoFundMe that was initially set up to help raise funds for the Ethiopian American’s medical expenses in the aftermath of the incident said he was found unresponsive on a bathroom floor by his twin brother on March 22. His brother attempted resuscitating him until help came from neighbors and medical officials.

He was later declared brain dead while on admission at the hospital and doctors told his family he wouldn’t make it. “Told me the bad news that he’s not going to survive, he’s not going to make it,” Haileyesus Zeryihun, Joshua’s father, told WXIX in an interview on March 30. “I was begging them on the floor, pleading to see if they can give me some time, not to give up on him. If I just give up on him, I feel like I’m just walking away from my son.”

His family told the news outlet Joshua probably choked himself with a shoelace in an attempt to partake in the challenge and ascertain how long he could hold his breath. Days before the tragic incident, Joshua’s father also said the deceased boy had boasted to his twin brother he could hold his breath for a minute.

“Unbeknownst to his parents, Joshua had been playing this dangerous game completely unaware of the risks involved,” the GoFundMe account stated. The family said they shared their tragic story with the hopes of spreading awareness about such deadly and dangerous games on social media. They said they also want to prevent other parents from experiencing the pain they’re currently going through.

“I’m paying the price right now. I’m living the life, and I hate for other parents to go through this,” Zeryihun said.

Meanwhile, TikTok released a statement last month commiserating with Joshua’s family, ABC News reported. The video-sharing social networking service also said it does not promote such dangerous challenges or content on its platform.

“At TikTok, we have no higher priority than protecting the safety of our community, and content that promotes or glorifies dangerous behavior is strictly prohibited and promptly removed to prevent it from becoming a trend on our platform,” the statement said.

There are currently no search results for the #blackoutchallenge on the social media platform.

What has been widely interpreted as unfair election laws aimed at hurting the Black vote in the state of Georgia have now been promulgated despite the protestations of Democrats and election experts in and out of the Peach State.

On Thursday afternoon, Governor Brian Kemp signed the Election Integrity Act of 2021 after both houses of the state legislature, which Republicans control, voted in favor. The days leading up to the legislative decision saw a nationwide interest in what the bill proposed.

A few of the things the law seeks to do has left many concerned. For instance, the Act requires Georgians to get new ID requirements to request mail-in ballots. Formerly, Georgians only had to sign their names. Apart from that, Georgian legislators have now been given power to take control of election operations if any problems at all are reported during an electioneering process.

People waiting in line at at a polling center now will not receive food and drinks from any Samaritan since the practice is now illegal. The law will also allow only a short period of time for early voting.

When the new rules were being signed, State Rep. Park Cannon, a Black Democrat, went to the door of the room at the statehouse where Kemp and other legislators convened. After knocking on the door in continuous protest, Cannon was arrested, handcuffed, and removed from the premises.

She would later tweet: “I am not the first Georgian to be arrested for fighting voter suppression. I’d love to say I’m the last, but we know that isn’t true”.

The new laws have been read as a response to the devastating defeat suffered by Republicans in the 2020 election where for the first time in decades, the two United States senators from the state – Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Black social activist, and Jon Ossof, a Jewish investigative journalist – are Democrats.

President Joe Biden also became the first Democratic candidate for president to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. The president also added his voice to the critics’ in calling out the new Georgia laws saying they amounted to “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” targeting Black people.

Jay-Z is probably the busiest Black entrepreneur in the market, making one deal after another. He recently sold half of his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, to LVMH, the luxury goods company and also launched a marijuana brand.

The rapper is back in the news after selling a majority ownership stake in Tidal audio and video music streaming service to Square, a digital payment platform run by Jack Dorsey.

Square will pay a mix of cash and stock in the value of $297 million and Tidal’s superstar shareholders, including Beyoncé, Madonna and Rihanna will remain in place, making them the second-largest co-owners. Jay-Z will join Square’s board of directors.

“Why would a music streaming company and a financial services company join forces?!,” Dorsey posted on Twitter, confirming the deal. “It comes down to a simple idea: finding new ways for artists to support their work. New ideas are found at intersections, and we believe there is a compelling one between music and the economy. I knew TIDAL was something special as soon as I experienced it, and it will continue to be the best home for music, musicians, and culture.” 

In a thread, the Twitter CEO further explained: “Given what Square has been able to do for sellers of all sizes and individuals through Cash App, we believe we can now work for artists to see the same success for them, and us. We’re going to start small and focus on the most critical needs of artists and growing their fanbases.”

On his part, Jay-Z said TIDAL remains “a platform that supports artists at every point in their careers. Artists deserve better tools to assist them in their creative journey. Jack and I have had many discussions about TIDAL’s endless possibilities that have made me even more inspired about its future. This shared vision makes me even more excited to join the Square board. This partnership will be a game-changer for many. I look forward to all this new chapter has to offer!”

Jay-Z first acquired Tidal for $56 million in 2015 but the platform has since struggled to keep up with other music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. In 2017, Jay-Z announced that he was selling a stake in Tidal to Sprint, a telecoms company.

The $200 investment from Sprint was not enough to keep Tidal afloat as it still struggles to rival Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. According to Forbes, the streaming service’s financial woes have been going on for years. In 2014, it lost $10.4 million, $28 million in 2015 and then nearly $44 million in 2016.

A Black female Amazon Web Services senior manager on Monday filed a lawsuit against the trillion-dollar company and two of its executives on allegations of race and gender discrimination. Besides an additional allegation of the company flouting the Equality Pay Act, the plaintiff, in the lawsuit, also claims she was sexually harassed and assaulted by a former Amazon executive, Recode reported.

Prior to joining Amazon in 2017, the plaintiff, Charlotte Newman, previously worked for Sen. Cory Booker as his economic policy adviser. In an interview with Recode, the Harvard Business School graduate revealed the discrimination started when she was first offered a much lower role within the organizational ranks despite applying for a higher opening that she said befitted her qualifications.

After joining the company, Newman said the discrimination persisted as she was unable to rise up the organizational ranks for over a year despite performing some tasks that were above her level and also demanding a promotion from her manager. She also alleged some of her White colleagues who were on the same level as she was were promoted ahead of her despite having less working experience and not having graduate degrees. The lawsuit alleges that the period of stagnation cost her millions.

Though she was eventually promoted to a senior level in 2019, Newman claimed her first boss spoke to her in a language she believed was racially stereotypical when he addressed her about her mode of communication – using descriptions like it was “too direct”, “just scary”, and saying she “can intimidate people.”

Aside from that, Newman alleged a senior colleague by the name Andres Maz sexually harassed her on numerous occasions, claiming he went as far as seemingly proposing they have sex. Newman also recalled other separate incidents where Maz groped her by her thigh and yanked her by her hair when she was leaving a company hangout. She also said she was initially reluctant to report Maz’s alleged unprofessional advances as he was responsible for providing updates on her performance to another manager, thus making her fear there was going to be some form of retaliation from her superiors if she did so.

“There’s been deep emotional pain,” she told Recode. “All of the hard work, all of the sacrifices I made, my education — none of that saved me from someone who’s a predator and living in fear of what else he might do.”

Newman said she ultimately decided to file an official complaint against Maz and also open up on the discrimination she faced as an employee of the organization after she was spurred by the protests that happened in the country following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. She said she filed the complaint in June last year, adding that she was also working from home during that period. Though Maz was eventually fired after investigations, she said she had to endure participating in virtual meetings involving him for several months while company authorities were looking into her complaints.

“At the very least, Amazon could have better safeguards in place to protect employees,” she told Recode. “A company of Amazon’s size should have clear guidelines about what happens if you report, hear what your rights are … [and] ensure that once you report you don’t have to be contacted by the person who harassed you.”

Fearing retaliation from her managers, Newman said she moved to a different department last year. Newman’s lawsuit comes after an expose from the news outlet that revealed bias and discriminatory complaints from Black Amazon employees.

“I strongly believe that Amazon should be harnessing the light of diverse leadership rather than dimming the light of Black employees and other employees of color,” she said. “For years I had been sort of suffering in silence, [but] I’m sure there are a lot of people who now feel more empowered to add their voices to the story, and hopefully there’s some real change that occurs.”

Newman said she has told representatives from the company she would only remain with the establishment for a longer period if they introduce policies that would revamp their hiring and diversity programs. She also wants a company hiring practice known as “down-leveling” to be either scrapped or reviewed.

“Amazon works hard to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture, and these allegations do not reflect those efforts or our values,” the company said in response to the lawsuit. “We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and thoroughly investigate all claims and take appropriate action. We are currently investigating the new allegations included in this lawsuit.”