Crisis, The

Tracking Black History On Horseback

The New Jersey social studies teacher is pairing today's technology with yesterday's mode of transportation to unearth seldom-heard Black history facts. Dean, 52, is executive director of the Black Heritage Riders, a nonprofit organization that seeks creative ways to educate students.

In Brief

JUDGES RULE The Supreme Court ruled that judges can use discretion when imposing prison terms for those jailed for crack cocaine offenses.

Bootlegging Hurts Black Films

It was one of the most anticipated films of the year, with an all-star cast featuring Oscar-winner Denzel Washington. But some people didn't go to their local theater to see American Gangster. Instead, they opted to watch the film in the comfort of their own homes. Before the movie even hit the theaters, high-quality DVDs hit the streets for as Utile as $5.

At It Again: Affirmative Action Foe Ward Connerly Returns

Now the former University of California regent is throwing his muscle and name recognition behind a new group that wants to dismantle racial preferences in five states this year. The basic language says the state won't discriminate or grant preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public education admissions, employment or contracting.

Hollywood Hustle

The married father of two girls talked to The Crisis about his struggles in the film industry and his goals to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

The Naked Truth

In response to numbers like these, mainstream publishers slap scantily clad Black women placed in provocative poses on the covers of trade paperbacks, even when the work is literary fiction, not street lit, or urban fiction, as it is often called. Just as Ol' Massa encouraged slave men and women (or boys and girls) to mate so they could create slave babies and reproduce his wealth, some mainstream publishers have, according to Chambers, encouraged Black writers to sex up their work: When I w...

What Should We Do Now?

The lack of respect and the demonizing of poor African American youth in our media, without critical discussion of the lack of opportunity provided to them, suggests that our government, our decision makers and many business and nonprofit leaders lack the political will to work to create equal opportunity for communities of color. Americans who share these needs constitute a voting bloc and a grassroots coalition that could launch a giant step in social change rivaling the tectonic shifts ac...

In the Promised Land

The community recognizes a Jewish history that can be traced back to King Solomon, but wasn't able to link with the global diaspora of Jews until sometime in the 19th century. The more conservative and Orthodox factions in the Israeli religious sector were long skeptical of the Ethiopians' claim to Judaism - even though all Jews are meant to have the "right of return," an Israeli law that allows Jews from anywhere in the world to obtain automatic Israeli citizenship. Throughout the Palestin...

Books in Brief

Cultural critic Reeves examines hip-hop, its politics, its music and its relationship to certain cultural developments that preceded it, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement and the Black Arts movement.

Naacp Dallas Chapter Teaches Technology

The campaign bills itself as a cooperative effort of businesses and organizations that collaborate to present young people with opportunities in education, technology and professional careers through video games. If someone wants to have a camp, they contact the NAACP Dallas branch president who schedules the event time and location and then helps to promote the event to the local NAACP Youth Council.

Southern California Naacp Branches Help Fire Victims Find Assistance

The devastating fires that raged through Southern California and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in October 2007 were a formidable foe, but NAACP leaders in the area used their knowledge and leveraged their community connections to keep people informed about where to get help. Rucker-Hughes, who works in the school system as a liaison for homeless and displaced persons, spoke with FEMA and the Red Cross and took that information back to the NAACP.

Naacp Sues Twelve Subprime Mortgage Loan Companies

Weaver, a recruiter for Time Warner Cable, went to the bank for a mortgage loan and was given a rate of between six and seven percent. Encouraged that she could begin cleaning up her community, she scheduled contractors to make repairs on the house. Then she went in for the closing.

Naacp Accuses North Carolina of Prosecutorial Misconduct

The North Carolina NAACP regards the James Johnson case as just the beginning of a bigger campaign against prosecutorial misconduct and racial discrimination, which Barber believes are often inherent in the American criminal justice system, particularly in cases of people who are Black and poor. Barber said it's hard to avoid the comparison with the relative swift exoneration of the White Duke University lacrosse players accused of rape, and to reveal and reprimand prosecutorial misconduct i...

Naacp Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Friendly's Restaurant

The Conway, S.C., branch of the NAACP and a Maryland resident filed a class action lawsuit against Friendly's Ice Cream Corp., and Friendly's franchisee, Myrtle Beach Friends Boulevard LLC. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, a jury trial and asks the court to bar the restaurant from continuing their discriminatory practices.

Naacp Member Featured in Book On Single Moms

Stephanie Clark has always believed that single mothers can do anything. She believed it so much that Clark, who is a single mother herself, founded an organization to empower single mothers and strengthen mother-daughter relationships. She has been helping women through My Daughter's Keeper Inc., a nonprofit based in New Jersey, since 2002.

School Voucher Referendum Defeated in Utah

Instead of giving parents money to opt out of public schools, the NAACP contended that the funds would be better spent on improving the public school system by addressing the imbalance in resources.

Naacp Delegation Observes Venezuelan Elections

In early December, an NAACP delegation flew to Caracas, Venezuela, to observe the voting process, and progress of a reform that would have formally recognized Afro-Venezuelans as a group in that nation's Constitution. Although the constitutional amendments did not pass, delegates said that they were quite impressed with the enthusiasm of everyday Venezuelans at the polls, and that the NAACP will continue to work with Afro-Venezuelans and those of African descent throughout the South American ...

Activist Melvin Law Rebuilds Richmond Branch

Melvin D. Law, the son of a coal miner, had just graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from West Virginia State College. [...] more than 50 years later and a decade after retiring as a chemist at Richmond veterans hospital, Law is still fighting injustices for the NAACP as the president of the Richmond, Va., branch.

Publisher J. Whyatt Mondesire Will Head Pennsylvania State Conference

Always the activist, Mondesire founded Utam Buzi, a campus magazine for African American students whose needs weren't being met by the school's four White student newspapers.

Naacp Joins Lawsuit Against Eli Lilly for Workplace Discrimination

After 12 years with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., former global business consultant Cassandra Welch received one of her final slights from the company in February 2004. The lawsuit alleges that African American employees don't receive the same pay as their White counterparts who hold the same job titles, and don't get promoted at the same rate.

The Lynching of Elmore Bolling

Through research and interviews, McCall has come to believe her father's prosperity was the impetus for his murder, though one of the accused men later told a Montgomery newspaper that Boiling offended his wife on the telephone. "The title of just about every book dealing with the legacy of African Americans might very well be titled, 'No Bill,'" says Richard Bailey, a Montgomery author and historian who attended the marker dedication.

Regional Update

Law enforcement representatives at the meeting included Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker, Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff and officials from the Alameda County Superior Court and Probation Department. The public school system in Loudoun County, Va., may be known for its high-achieving students, but the local NAACP believes it should be doing more to narrow the achievement gap between White and minority students.

Editor's Note

We Contain Multitudes

Even casual observers of mass media have likely noticed the tendency of news programs and publications to limit their "diversity" coverage to a handful of prominent African Americans.

Upfront

Black Experience Featured in New Virtual Museum

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture isn't supposed to open until 2015 but Lonnie G. Bunch JU, its founding director, says the story of the African American experience just couldn't wait that long to be told. There's also information about collections and acquisitions, programs such as the StoryCorps Griot oral history project and the Folkways Recording Project to reissue historic Black music and spoken word recordings, and the site's key feature, the Mem...

Are You Ready? The Switch to Digital Television

Brooklyn resident Carol Taylor, 76, who has no cable or satellite service, uses a television set that her son purchased years ago to watch the free commercial broadcast networks and a handful of other independent stations. Among NAB's initiatives are public service announcements on English and Spanish-language TV stations, a road show and a pilot partnership with religious institutions.

Group Wants Sojourner Truth Bust in Capitol

Sojourner Truth, the abolitionist and suffragist, will become the first Black woman immortalized with a bust in the United States Capitol. The movement to bring Truth's likeness to the Capitol began more than 10 years ago, led by renowned civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker, several Black female politicians and the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW).

Words

Veteran Educator Changes Lives with Charter Schools

The school offers a culturally relevant standards-based curriculum combined with project-based learning (applying what you learn to real world issues). Celerity Nascent has a 98 percent attendance rate and has increased standardized test scores, outperforming public schools in the same area.

According to Reports

The poll found that: * 44 percent of Hispanics and 47 percent of Asians are "generally afraid of African Americans because they are responsible for most of the crime." * 52 percent of Blacks and 46 percent of Hispanics believe that "most Asian business owners do not treat them with respect." * 51 percent of African Americans feel Latin American immigrants "are taking jobs, housing and political power away from the Black community." * 61 percent of Hispanics, 53 percent of Asians and 47 percen...

Lives

Ike Turner: A Life of Music and Mayhem

Izear Luster Turner Jr., was born in Clarksdale, Miss. Turner met the talented and leggy Anna Mae Bullock in 1959, choosing the 18-year-old Tennessee native to be the lead singer of his band, the Kings of Rhythm. Ironically, their first hit together was the rousing R&B tune, "A Fool in Love." The Ike and Tina Turner Revue wowed crowds worldwide. They went on to make many hits, including their signature, "Proud Mary," which won a Grammy in 1971 for best R&B vocal performance by a group.