Poor people are the new swing vote, By William J. Barber II
If you’re an ordinary American who goes to work to pay the bills or takes care of a loved one most days, it’s easy to feel down when you see the headlines about the 2024 election. Donald Trump has been …
Spirituals, freedom songs echo across generations, by Hazel Trice Edney
Every Sunday, millions of African Americans across the nation make their way to church anticipating relief from lives of financial woes, pressures at work, health concerns, family matters, race discrimination and inequities among other stressful issues of everyday life.
Countering MAGA movement with nonviolent extremism, by David W. Marshall
Between 1941 and 1945 some 6 million Jews were systematically murdered across German-occupied Europe during World War II. As part of a state-sponsored genocide, two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was executed. As a result, those of Jewish faith made it …
Talks of mandated national service, by Clarence Page
Don’t get nervous, young folks, but talk about a national service mandate has been bubbling up again in Washington.
If you’re truly pro-life, you should be anti-gun, by Tony Campolo
In 2022, 48,204 Americans were killed by guns, which are now the leading cause of death among children and teens. Our gun deaths have come to define us in the eyes of the world. You might even say that guns …
Reparations program accused of being discriminatory, by Clarence Page
News that a conservative non-profit legal group is challenging Evanston, Ill.’s groundbreaking reparations program got me thinking about the many attempts to redress the wrongs of systemic racism through monetary compensation.
CO2 pipelines a bad deal — follow the money, by Ben Jealous
“Isn’t it sad that money controls everything?”
Black woman’s bid to buy Virginia Beach home faces illegal barrier, echoes of the past, by Roger Chesley
People who overstate the racial progress America has witnessed over the past several decades need to be reminded, every so often, of the discrimination that still lurks in housing, education, employment and the like. An African-American woman’s quest to buy …
Project 2025 is an attack on Black people, by Julianne Malveaux
Project 2025 is a conservative manifesto if a Republican is elected president in 2024. Crafted by the Heritage Foundation, the 900-page book comprehensively addresses every agency that the president can influence, with suggestions for the agencies that should be eliminated …
Alito sullies integrity of high court, by Marc H. Morial
“Professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire …
Danger: Trump moves from man to symbol
Last week’s historic verdict is worth rehearsing. On May 30, Donald J. Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Twelve ordinary citizens unanimously found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in …
America’s growing literacy problem, by David W. Marshall
The 2024 graduation season is upon us, and it represents a proud milestone in the lives of teenagers. Each year, middle school students graduate and then transition into high school. The same is true of many high school students who …
Credibility crisis at the Supreme Court, by Clarence Page
As if suspicions, partisan and otherwise, have not dealt enough blows to our criminal justice system in recent years, along comes Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s flag flap.
A call to action for Richmond’s schools, by Jonathan Bibbs
I remember my first day as a student at Huguenot High School, walking into the building with a slight shakiness. I knew I had to step correct. The Huguenot of the late 1990s was a storied place in Richmond.
Poor and low income people need to vote, by Julianne Malveaux
“There were 15 presidential debates in 2020,” thunders the Rev. William Barber, the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival (www.poorpeoplescampaign.org). I’ve heard him make this point many times, and sometimes the exclusion so …