ATLANTA DAILY WORLD — Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom holds a narrow lead over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a high-stakes U.S. Senate race that remains too close to call. A longtime prosecutor from Columbus, Colom seeks to become the first Black person to represent Mississippi in the Senate since Reconstruction. Scott Colom, a Mississippi Democrat challenging Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, could become the first Black person elected to represent the state in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. As of Thursday afternoon (November 5), unofficial results showed Colom leading Hyde-Smith by 1,138 votes, with 96% of estimated votes counted, according to…
Author: Black Press USA
History has been made in Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, has been elected governor of Georgia, becoming the first Black woman in American history to win the highest executive office in any state. Bottoms’ victory over Republican businessman Rick Jackson represents a defining moment in American politics, breaking a barrier that has stood since the nation’s founding and placing Georgia at the center of a historic political transformation. For generations, Black women have played a critical role in American democracy, organizing communities, leading movements, mobilizing voters and shaping public policy. Yet despite their contributions, no Black…
By Lazar Berman, The Times of Israel As support for Israel declines precipitously in the US, hundreds of African-American and African pastors and Christian leaders are arriving in Israel this week for a mission inspired by the slain US civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. King planned to bring thousands of pilgrims to Israel and Jordan in 1967, but that trip was postponed because of the Six Day War and the political implications of such a trip. He said he would look into coming the next year, but was assassinated in April 1968. “There were no mass pilgrimages”…
COMMUNITY VOICE (KS) — Georgia voters made history on Nov. 3 by electing eight Democratic women to statewide offices, securing seven of the state’s eight major executive positions. Among the victors, Penny Brown Reynolds defeated her Republican opponent to become the first Black woman elected as Georgia’s secretary of state. Georgia voters elected eight Democratic women to statewide offices Nov. 3, giving women seven of the state’s eight major executive positions and a seat on its utility regulatory commission. The winners are: Keisha Lance Bottoms: Governor Penny Brown Reynolds: Secretary of state Tanya Miller: Attorney general Keisha Sean Waites: Insurance…
By Post Staff Marcia Anna Gillespie, the first editor in chief of Essence magazine, has died. She was 82. Born in Rockville Centre, New York, in 1944. The daughter of a church sexton/small business owner and domestic worker/caterer, Gillespie parlayed her degree in American studies from Illinois’s Lake Forest College into a research job at Time-Life Books, Inc. in New York. There she advocated for fairness and inclusion of Black life in its publications. When the owners of the standard bearer of Black life, Ebony magazine, ventured into creating a special publication for young, Black women, Gillespie was hired as…
By Rev. Dr. Adolphus Lacey, Senior Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church, Brooklyn, New York For generations, the Black church has stood strong in our communities through every historical change this country has experienced. During the civil rights movement and in recent times, faith leaders have helped uplift Black sanctuaries to register voters, keep food pantries open for people in need, and sit with families in hospital rooms in their most desperate moments. When our people faced new trials, they could always look to our faith leaders and the church to lean in to help us be included in these transformative changes.…
By Fredrick D. Redmond, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and Fedrick C. Ingram, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Secretary-Treasurer Byron Donalds wants to be Florida’s next governor. Not on our watch. Our stance is rooted in an old saying coined by Floridian Zora Neale Hurston in her final major nonfiction work, Dust Tracks on a Road, set in Florida. “All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk” is an idiom that distinguishes shared identity from shared interests. The congressman has done little to advance the cause of Black workers. In fact, on the AFL-CIO’s legislative scorecard, which tracks how legislators vote on the issues and policies that…
TRI-STATE DEFENDER — The National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award ceremony, held on Thursday, October 1, at the Orpheum Theatre, recognized a diverse group of civil rights leaders. Honorees included Fred Gray Sr., a legal strategist who represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The honorees at the National Civil Rights Museum’s 35th annual Freedom Award ceremony held at the Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 1, reflected a changing era of civil rights leadership. Fred Gray Sr., one of the last surviving legal strategists of the Civil Rights Movement, helped dismantle segregation in America as the lawyer who represented…
NEW YORK — For anyone raised in the Caribbean, or in a Brooklyn, Bronx, or Queens household where the radio stayed tuned to home, there was never a time without the Mighty Sparrow. His voice was simply part of the furniture of our lives: at Carnival, at weddings, at Sunday lunch, in the car on the way to JFK. On Sunday, that voice went quiet. Slinger Francisco, known to the world as the Mighty Sparrow, died Sunday, September 27, in New York. He was 91. His family said he passed peacefully after a brief illness, with loved ones at his…
By Rev. Al Sharpton Through a new National Action Network initiative, artificial intelligence is framed as a practical tool for industry preparedness. We are at the forefront of a fundamental shift of access and opportunity. When new technology emerges, marginalized communities are often told to catch up to systems we did not design, and adjust to landscapes that would sooner leave us behind than include us in their architecture. Often during these shifts, our communities become the least resourced, and must navigate industries whose rate of change outpaces their rate of exposure. To combat this, these communities must develop…