Politics

The black electorate is back en vogue. After saving Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran from defeat in the Republican primary just months after propelling Democrat Terry McAuliffe to Virginia’s governorship, black America has demonstrated that it indeed can determine the outcome of elections. More important, perhaps, is the subtext of these results: The black vote is…

Forty-nine years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nearly a century ago, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution stated, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color…

Although the event wasn’t billed as a state dinner, it most certainly had an air to it. Dignitaries and heads of state in attendance for the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit were feted Tuesday night at the White House. Chief of Protocol Peter Selfridge told the Washington Post that he was prepared to pull out all the…

If there was one person attending this week’s deftly staged U.S-Africa Leaders Summit that wanted the word “Ebola” to dominate every headline, it would probably be Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Anything to keep Boko Haram out of the discussion. Nigeria’s bad boys have managed to position themselves from little-known band of pseudo-Islamic thugs taking selfies…

The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit commenced Monday in Washington, D.C., with close to 50 African heads of state and other dignitaries in town to discuss a host of issues, including security, health, the environment and political corruption, Voice of America reports. Top U.S. officials were optimistic about the summit’s potential for deepening U.S.-Africa relations and economic…

Fifty years ago this week on Aug. 4, 1964, the bodies of three courageous freedom fighters—James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24—were found buried in a dam near Philadelphia, Miss. Like hundreds of other youth organizers from around the country, they came to flood Mississippi to register African-American voters in what is…

Africa’s coming to town. And in a big way. Africa’s movers and shakers are in Washington, D.C., this week to chop it up with President Barack Obama about trade and investment opportunities, politics and the U.S.’s interests in the region’s stability. The 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit is the largest gathering of African presidents and leaders…

The U.S. Department of Labor released statistics Friday showing that the overall unemployment rate inched up slightly to 6.2 percent in July from 6.1 percent in June. And unemployment in the African American community remain in the double digits, causing alarm among some civil rights leaders. Last month, the black unemployment rate was 11.4 percent,…

As an unconditional 72-hour cease-fire collapses, the New Jersey-sized Middle Eastern powerhouse called Israel is not in a good place. A bloody cage match with Hamas has created a scary, nonstop loop of grief-stricken Palestinian civilians on 60-second, 60-minute blast. As a result, the Jewish state is now faced with an unprecedented barrage of global…

Black people who look to defend President Barack Obama against other black people who claim he hasn’t done anything particularly “black” as president have had plenty of ammunition this week and will have more the next. The first black president, the son of an African immigrant, is also the first to convene a U.S.-Africa Leaders…