president barack obama

Dec 27 2010

Seven day celebration

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A parade was held along Crenshaw Boulevard today to mark the start of the seven-day African American festival of Kwanzaa.

The parade began at noon at Crenshaw and Adams boulevards, then headed to Leimert Park, where a festival was held that included musical and spoken word entertainment.

President Barack Obama and his wife released a statement expressing well wishes.

"Michelle and I extend our warmest thoughts and wishes to all those who are celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season,'' he said.

David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Dec 23 2010

Practical Politics

In February and again in April, President Barack Obama met with significant elements of the African American community to discuss what Blacks saw as their most critical need, and how they could work together with the White House to improve the condition of African Americans in the country. He met with the NAACP’s Ben Jealous, the Urban League’s Marc Morial, and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Dec 23 2010

Between the Lines

The power of truth rests in our desire to seek its source. Whether that truth is the reality of our current circumstances and desires to understand why things are the way they are, or the truth in the reality that there is a better way, a better life, a better reality that can be attained if we choose to see that reality as one we desire to attain.

Part of changing a reality is having the capacity to change it. Another part is having the desire to change it.

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Dec 23 2010

New strategies needed

Children typically have no control over where the adults in their lives take them, and that is the premise behind a piece of legislation that has been bouncing around Congress for at least 10 years.

Currently called the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010 or “the Dream Act,” the bill was essentially killed in the final days of the 111th Congress, when Democrats could not muster up the 60 votes needed in the Senate to break a Republican filibuster and vote on the bill, S.769.

Dec 23 2010

District of Columbia

President Barack Obama recently signed H.R. 6118 into law. It names the United States Postal Service office located on Massachusetts Avenue in northeast D.C. after civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height. “This bill, (marks) the first time a federal building in the nation’s capital has been named for an African American woman, and is cause for celebration,” Eleanor Holmes Norton said in a statement.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.