The NAACP took a bold and courageous step last week, going public in its denunciation of President Donald Trump’s open retreat from social justice, Civil Rights and economic empowerment and advance for all citizens. The organization announced that it would not be issuing an invitation to the President to attend and speak before its national convention being held in Charlotte next month. It’s the first time in the NAACP’s 116 year history that a sitting president has not been invited. NAACP President Derrick Johnson announced the move at an afternoon press conference, accusing Trump of working against its mission. “This has nothing to do with…
Author: Rosetta Miller Perry
More than 40 African American vendors can breathe easier this week. Attempts at renaming the airport have not succeeded. It won’t be called Donald Trump airport, or anything else like that, and that’s a good thing for anyone who’s concerned about equal justice and economic opportunity. Despite the protestations of his defenders, it’s hard not to view various actions and policies of the Trump administration as insensitive at best, and racist at worst. Let’s start with the scrubbing from the Arlington National Cemetery website information and educational materials about the history of Black and female service members last month. Some…
This week the Governor’s latest assault on public education got underway with a special session. Now there are certainly valid reasons for assembling a special session on public education. The biggest would be to address the climate of fear and anxiety so many children, parents and teachers feel when another tragic school shooting incident occurs. But rather than address the gun violence issue, Bill Lee is conducting an attack on the schools. He’s resumed lobbying and pushing for his voucher system, which does nothing positive to aid educational opportunities for deserving children, but instead creates a two-tiered education system that…
Before we begin this, let’s make one point 100 percent clear. What happened four years ago on January 7 was an attempted coup orchestrated by Donald Trump. It was straight out of a fascist playbook, and no one should pretend it was anything but what it was. But if people are going to be prosecuted and punished for this action, it makes a mockery out of the judicial system if you’re not going to punish the ringleader. We all know that’s not going to happen. The sad thing is 49.98 percent of the voting electorate don’t care what happened, nor…
For weeks now, a campaign has been underway in some white mainstream media to place total blame for the fiscal crisis at Tennessee State University on the former honorable president Dr. Glenda Glover. The mainstream media suddenly has amnesia because it has written for years that Tennessee State University (TSU) has been chronically underfunded and has faced a number of challenges. TSU was underfunded because it was a university with predominantly Black students, and now Tennessee schools that didn’t want Black students all these years now want them because of Federal Funding. Black and white students still want the TSU…
President-elect Donald Trump has just shown he believes there is such a thing as “Black jobs.” His sole Black Cabinet appointment, former NFL player and White House official Scott Turner, will lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His present position is chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute. During Trump’s first term, Turner served as the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, an initiative Trump created in 2018 to “encourage public and private investment” in thousands of low-income census tracts designated as so-called “opportunity zones” by Trump’s 2017…
I had the opportunity last week to sit down with President Glenda Glover regarding the allegations concerning TSU finances under her administration. President Glover retired on June 30, 2024. She said it was too complex to have a simple conversation. But she promised me that she would provide a statement. Her statement in its entirety is published below. Statement by Dr. Glenda Glover I am compelled to release this statement to address recent accusations, misinformation, and misstatements that have been reported publicly. Mischaracterizations surrounding the unfounded references to Tennessee State University’s financial condition under “the prior administration” as well as…
It really takes a specially unhinged person to sound more ridiculous and absurd these days than Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, but Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has managed to surpass him in making statements that are at best outrageous, and at worse dangerous, considering they’re coming from an elected official. Greene has already previously done such things as openly embrace white supremacist rhetoric and organizations, but her comments have gotten so ludicrous lately even her own party members are denouncing them. Last week Greene claimed online that Democrats are “controlling the weather.” Her bizarre statements came in the wake…
Seldom will voters in any presidential election have both a chance to make history and get a clearer and more obvious choice between candidates than in the upcoming one between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Harris espouses a host of positive values regarding the future. She’s been an outstanding state attorney general, senator, and Vice President. She would be the first Black and Asian woman president and the first HBCU woman graduate to hold that office. But most importantly, she’s an advocate for progress, someone interested in the plight of the entire nation, and not totally…
In the annals of Tennessee politics, there are few more egregious examples of injustice and abuse of power than the way certain state lawmakers targeted Tennessee State University in recent years. However, the karma for those responsible is now coming back to haunt them, and I believe this is only the beginning. Let us not forget the concerted efforts of State Senator Jon Lundberg and State Representative John Ragan to remove the capable leadership at TSU, amid the university’s diligent work to address the issues outlined in a biased and flawed comptroller’s report. These lawmakers, along with certain Republican cohorts,…