By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) — Rejecting calls for him to move closer toward his Republican critics, a confident President Barack H. Obama kicked off his second term on Monday by making an impassioned plea for a more inclusive America. “It is not our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began,” Obama said in his inaugural speech. “For our journey is not complete unt ...

By Cassiette West-Williams NNPA Special Contributor Darrien Boone almost became a murder statistic a year ago at the age of 17. A car pulled-up as he was walking and the driver pointed a gun towards him and threatened to kill him over a female classmate. Standing alone, Boone talked fast, explaining that he did not know the young lady in question and, more importantly, that he valued his life. For some reas ...

By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist Who is surprised that Lance Armstrong was doping?  Who thinks he was the only one?  Who is surprised that he used the Oprah Winfrey show as his platform to “come clean”?  We are a nation of cheaters and Armstrong is one in a long line of our nation’s cheaters. Indeed the very foundation of our country is the result of cheating. The Pilgrims cheated the Native Americans th ...

By Marian Wright Edelman NNPA Columnist In his last Sunday sermon at Washington National Cathedral, Dr. King retold the parable of the rich man Dives who ignored the poor and sick man Lazarus who came every day seeking crumbs from Dives’ table. Dives went to hell, Dr. King said, not because he was rich but because he did not realize his wealth was his opportunity to bridge the gulf separating him from his b ...

In an affair replete with symbolic doubles, President Barack Hussein Obama will re-take the oath of office as head of government in the United States of America on Sunday, Jan. 20, and again on Jan. 21, which is also officially the national Martin Luther King holiday. This will be the 57th inauguration ceremony for an American president, although Mr. Obama remains the 44th president of the United States. Th ...

By Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist “I miss you baby girl. Sweet caramel princess. African American, Puerto Rican Canadian with a wee bit of Irish…We will honor your classmates you loved so dearly too. As well as the teachers and staff. Love wins.” — Nelba Marquez-Greene, the mother of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim, Ana Grace Marquez-Greene As we begin 2013, I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the maj ...

By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Rather than deter violence, placing more police officers in schools has led to more students becoming entangled in the criminal justice system for such minor infractions as disorderly conduct, an in-depth study of the issue has concluded. Despite that finding by the Justice Policy Institute, a nonprofit group that seeks ways to decrease incarcerati ...

By Marian Wright Edelman NNPA Columnist When Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, spoke at the Children’s Defense Fund’s recent national conference, she shared some details about her son that reminded the audience both how special Trayvon was to his family and at the same time how much the happy, social high school student was like any mother’s child. “He was very affectionate. He loved to hug and kiss ...

by Teria Rogers Special to the NNPA from theAfro-American Newspaper On a recent Thursday, evening at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, music minister Byron Cage counted down the tasks he needed to complete in preparation for an evening service. On this particular night, he readied for a special men’s worship service featuring Bishop Walter Scott Thomas and his men’s choir from ...

After sparking widespread rumors of a comeback after the release of  “The Bravest Man in the Universe,”  album soul singer Bobby Womack has announced that he’s experiencing early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. “The doctor says, ‘You have signs of Alzheimer’s, “it’s not bad yet, but it’s gonna get worse” Womack revealed. Womack, 68, admitted that he’s having trouble remembering things, including the name o ...