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11-07-2024 3:31 pm • PDX and SEA Weather
MLK Breakfast
Cecil Williams (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Cecil Williams spent decades photographing South Carolina's civil rights history. Now he's excited all that work will have a permanent home in Orangeburg.
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(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
The president, underscoring bipartisan consensus on the need for a fair and unbiased legal framework, declared a series of important measures toward realizing the promise of equal justice in American communities.
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(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Historic Black communities have dwindled from their once-thriving existence in the United States and efforts to preserve what's left encounter complicated challenges. Researchers estimate fewer than 30 historic Black towns are left, compared to more than 1,200 at the peak about a century ago. “Rebuild Albina,” based in Portland, Oregon aims to educate, invest and restore homeownership to Black people in an area that used to be a thriving Black neighborhood.
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(Photo/NNPA)
In a press call, top White House officials attributed the surge in Black entrepreneurship, the fastest in 30 years, to Bidenomics
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(Office of the Governor via AP)
New York state will create a commission tasked with considering reparations to address the persistent, harmful effects of slavery in the state under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday. New York now follows California, which became the first state to form a reparations task force in 2020.
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In Atlanta parents must present at least eight documents to enroll their children — twice as many as parents in New York City or Los Angeles.
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A group of current and former Alabama prisoners have filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that they were trapped in a “modern-day form of slavery” by being forced to work at fast-food chains for meager or no compensation. The comprehensive 129-page complaint, seeking class-action status, contends that the prisoners were victims of a “convict leasing” system, compelling them to work under exploitative conditions while the state of Alabama and its corporate partners reaped substantial profits.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama and first reported by the website Law & Crime, implicates over two dozen state officials, including Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall, alongside numerous government agencies and private employers, including the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC). The plaintiffs argue that these entities have violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
The complaint notes that while 26.8% of Alabama’s population identifies as Black or African American, double that percentage constitutes the Black incarcerated population. Drawing historical parallels, the group compares the alleged labor-trafficking scheme to the enslavement of individuals in Alabama’s cotton fields and subsequent sharecropping and convict leasing practices post-Civil War.
In a video statement, jailed activist Robert Earl Council, also known as Kinetik Justice, asserts that Alabama’s work programs are a continuation of pre-Civil War slavery. He accuses corporations and fast-food companies involved in these programs as complicit “slave masters,” condemning their participation in the exploitation.
The complaint alleges that Alabama generates an annual $450 million from forced labor, with inmates compelled to work against their will. At the same time, the ADOC claims 40% of gross earnings purportedly for the cost of incarceration. In a recent finding, the U.S. Department of Justice announced significant deficiencies in ADOC facilities, prompting a 2020 lawsuit against Alabama, citing widespread violence among prisoners and guards.
Individual plaintiff stories further underscore the harsh realities. Lakiera Walker, incarcerated from 2007 to 2023, recounted years of uncompensated work, including housekeeping, floor stripping, and employment at Burger King for a paltry $2 per day. Walker details enduring sexual harassment, being forced to work while unwell, and the intimidation preventing many women from speaking out.
The lawsuit contends that the work programs create a paradoxical situation where inmates are denied parole for public safety reasons while simultaneously working without supervision at local businesses. The plaintiffs demand justice for what they describe as forced labor and aim to expose and rectify systemic exploitation within Alabama’s prison system.
Navy Federal approved a higher percentage of applications from white borrowers earning less than $62,000 annually than Black borrowers earning $140,000 or more.
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A Black Ohio woman who miscarried in her bathroom has been charged with abuse of a corpse. Brittany Watts, 33, awaits grand jury action in a case that has sparked a national firestorm over the plight of pregnant women, especially women of color, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade
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A Texas high school Black student who has been disciplined for months for refusing to change his hairstyle is stuck in legal delays and is unikely to be back with his classmates anytime soon. Darryl George returned to in-school suspension at his Houston-area campus last week and will remain there for now. Various issues are preventing him from returning to class including delays to a federal lawsuit
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