By Chinta Strausberg In a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel Tuesday, business icon Ed Gardner averted a mass protest on City Hall and emerged from the mayor’s office “some what optimistic” that African Americans will be included on construction sites throughout Chicago. Accompanied by his long-time friend and confidante, Carl McFerren, Gardner, who said last Saturday if he had not heard from the mayor he woul ...

By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Nearly half a million young Blacks face a tough choice as the November 6 presidential election approaches: either get a new, government-issued photo identification or don’t vote. In “Turning Back the Clock on Voting Rights,” the Black Youth Project, a group that fosters political and civil engagement among young African Americans, outlined h ...

By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Nearly 6 million former prisoners –1 million of them Black – will not be able to vote in the November presidential election because of state laws that continue to punish them even after they have completed their sentences, according to a recent report by the Sentencing Project. The report said 5.85 million citizens who were formerly incarcer ...

By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist Ai-Jen Poo, a powerful and passionate advocate for the rights of domestic workers, leads the National Domestic Workers Alliance.  Who are these folks?  They are the private household workers (maids) who propped up inept women in the movie, The Help. They are the home health aides who take care of our elders when they are ill or disabled, bringing them meals, bathing them, ...

Spirit has many ways of expressing itself. One of those channels of expression occurs through music; the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic voice of our soul, reflecting years of feelings and experiences. From early times it has been known as a healing force. We used it to record family histories and communicate between communities. Work songs were used to lessen the harsh conditions of a prison chain gang. Chants ...

In this photo released by The White House, President Barack Obama participates in an interview Wednesday May 9 with Robin Roberts of ABC’s Good Morning America in the Cabinet Room of the White House. — THE WHITE HOUSE, PETE SOUZA Right on the heels of North Carolina becoming the 31st state in the Union to pass a ban on homosexual marriage, President Barack Obama announced his support of matrimony between sa ...