Posts by amstrat

Less than a month ago, Rep. Elijah Cummings’ friend, staffer and wife each took the stage during his funeral at New Psalmist Baptist Church to eulogize the venerated congressman they loved and respected. Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said his friend “defied the limits of others’ expectations.” Harry Spikes said his boss taught him a…

The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said.…

In a joint teleconference broadcast live from the Four Season’s Hotel in New York’s Financial District, the Black News Channel (BNC) and the National Newspaper Publishers Association announced the official launch date and time for the nation’s first 24-hour, 7-days a week all-news TV channel that will focus on African American news. The new channel…

When Ida B. Wells moved to Chicago at the age of 32, she was already a world-renowned anti-lynching crusader, civil rights activist and investigative journalist. Born into slavery during the Civil War, she later risked her life investigating and exposing violence against black people in the South, and became a co-owner of The Memphis Free Speech so that she…

It seems strange that the new movie “Harriet,” opening Friday, is the first and only major film about Harriet Tubman. By now, multiple generations have read about the Underground Railroad engineer in school. Tubman, played in the movie by Cynthia Ervio, is part of black history’s official pantheon, her name as recognizable as Martin Luther…

DALLAS — On Thursday, I went to the funeral of Atatiana Jefferson, 28, who was shot to death by a police officer from outside her bedroom window this month. My companion there was Rhanda Dormeus, whose daughter Korryn Gaines was also killed by the police in her home. As we watched people file by the coffin, we…

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings was the wife of longtime Congressman Elijah Cummings of Baltimore, Maryland. They were married for more than a decade before his sudden death on October 17, 2019. He was 68 years old and his death was attributed to “complications concerning longstanding health challenges.” Rep. Cummings had heart surgery in 2017 and was hospitalized in early…

A recent report finds mainly women are in poverty in Illinois and improving their financial status would boost the overall economy in the state. The report from the research arm of the Heartland Alliance concluded that improving wages and other conditions for women would be particularly helpful to women of color. Katie Buitrago of the Heartland…

Read the full article on the Chicago Sun Times.

After over a year of secret construction, Planned Parenthood announced its newest abortion facility on Wednesday: an 18,000-square-foot mega-clinic in southern Illinois. The new location is just 13 miles away from Missouri’s last remaining abortion clinic, a facility in St. Louis fighting to keep its license. Since August 2018, Planned Parenthood has used a shell company to…