Tag Archives: Civil Rights

4/4 How Long, Not Long! MLK50 Thread

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Last year, the Benny family went on our own “Freedom Trail” journey in Alabama, whereby we went to Selma to visit the site of where the march started, at Brown Chapel AME, where there was a bombing, and we drove over the Edmund Pettus Bridge towards Montgomery. In Montgomery, we visited the church where Dr. King spoke and got a tour. The tour guide was excellent, made it more interactive by having couples and pairing up folks from an all-white high school student group that was visiting, by getting up and saying “How Long, Not Long!”, taken from a speech … Continue reading →

Progressive Lion: John Conyers Jr. (MI-13)

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John Conyers Jr. is Dean of the House of Representatives, he was first elected to Congress in 1965.He is currently in his 26th term, and is one of only seven people to have served over 50 years in Congress. Conyers was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rosa Parks served on his staff for over twenty years and he visited Selma to meet with Freedom Riders multiple times in the 1960s. In many ways, his longevity makes him a living link to our past. Four days after MLK was assassinated, Conyers introduced a bill in Congress to make his birthday a … Continue reading →

Our bombs blew off this baby’s fingers. She is now learning to use the few she has left.

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This baby is learning to live life without her fingers after she was injured by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/qnkTzQ0mCN — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 20, 2017 Our government sold the airplanes that dropped these bombs. Our government refuels the planes on their sorties. Our government makes and sells the bombs, including cluster bombs. We share responsibility for these atrocities. And please don’t believe any of the bullshit peddled to us about how our bombs bring “freedom” and “democracy”. The hands on the triggers are Saudi and we provide the political cover for the Saudis as they do this. … Continue reading →

As military occupation enters 51st year, Trump administration wants UN to stop “bullying” Israel

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Palestinians have lived for 50 years under a military occupation by a foreign government and there are no signs this will end anytime soon. The Israeli government has been busily dispossessing Palestinians as individuals and as a nation of land and resources. Three generations of Palestinians have lived the bulk of their lives (five decades) with their human and civil rights curtailed by the Israeli government. The Trump administration believes the UN is “bullying” Israel by condemning these policies: [US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki] Haley arrived in Israel to a hero’s welcome one day after warning that the United States might pull out of … Continue reading →

3/5 Bernie, Nina, Danny Glover March for Workers Rights In MS; Jordan Charlton Launches New Website & TPW Open Thread

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Greetings TPWers. Lots going on this weekend. We’ll Start with Bernie’s, Nina’s and Danny Glover’s March on Mississippi, which was held yesterday in Canton. Bernie’s message: share the wealth with the workers. As usual, please add your news and thoughts in the comments section below. [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcAgAogEdic[/embedyt] The Real News has an interview of Bernie, Nina, and Danny [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_raYGLrB4o[/embedyt]

Ohio is an Open-Carry State Except If You’re an African-American Male

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The Republican National Convention is underway just a few miles from the park where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead by police in November of 2014 while he was playing with a toy pellet gun. We speak with Rev. Dr. Jawanza Karriem Colvin, the pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, which is one of the largest African-American congregations in Cleveland, about how city officials and activists responded to the killing. He was recently profiled in a Politico report titled “The Preacher Who Took on the Police.”

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NYPD Surveillance Unveiled: City Claims to Lose Docs on 1960s Radicals, Then Finds 1 Million Records

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There has been a major break in the decade-long fight to unveil records related to the New York City Police Department’s surveillance of political organizations in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, the NYPD has come under fire for spying on Muslim communities and the Occupy Wall Street movement. But decades ago, the NYPD spied extensively on political organizations, including the Young Lords, a radical group founded by Puerto Ricans modeled on the Black Panther Party. The Young Lords staged their first action in July 1969 in an effort to force the City of New York to increase garbage … Continue reading →

Fanny Lou Hamer Challenged Corporate Dems in 1964

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Civil rights leader Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation to the ’64 Democratic Party convention demanding to be recognized – President Johnson called an”urgent” press conference so there would be no TV coverage of her statement Some History Via Wikipedia In the summer of 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, or “Freedom Democrats” for short, was organized with the purpose of challenging Mississippi’s all-white and anti-civil rights delegation to the Democratic National Convention, which failed to represent all Mississippians. Hamer was elected Vice-Chair. The Freedom Democrats’ efforts drew national attention to the plight of blacks in Mississippi, and … Continue reading →