Given the pioneering success of Madam C. J. Walker, America’s first self-made Black woman millionaire, people wanted to know how she got started in business ownership only decades after the end of slavery in America.
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A space for national news pertaining to African Americans
Drug sentences extend past prison walls
Restore the Vote was an event co-sponsored by the NAACP Minneapolis and University of St. Thomas Law School. Held at St. Thomas University on February 15, its purpose was to initiate advocacy for restoration of voting rights to ex-offenders.
NOC hosts presidential candidate forum on Mpls North Side
“An open-ended invitation” remains in effect for U.S. presidential candidates to visit North Minneapolis and speak to the community, say Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) officials after Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders spoke last week, February 12, at Henry High School February.
Could big data reduce the prison population?
Better use of technology and data could help solve the problem of mass incarceration.
That’s one conclusion that can be drawn from the work of Steven Matthews, a technology consultant who, until recently, was Chief Information Officer for the Illinois Department of Corrections.
PHOTOS | Bernie Sanders’ fiery message heats up River Centre
On the evening of January 26, presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders first stopped in Duluth, Minnesota earlier in the day for a “Future to Believe In” campaign rally. Later that evening Sanders came to the St. Paul River Centre to address more than 10,000 people in the main area, along with close to 5,000 additional people in the overflow room.
VIDEO | President Obama delivers his final State of the Union address
President Barack Obama delivers the seventh and final State of the Union Address from the Capitol Building, January 12th, 2016.
Blacks, Native Americans more likely arrested on light rail
Metro Transit is now looking at how to improve its policing in light of a recent report that showed Blacks and other people of color overwhelming cited for violations rather than warned, especially for “first-time fare evasion” incidents.
Singer Natalie Cole passes at 65
Natalie Cole, iconic pop-soul singing star and heir to the musical legacy of premier jazz pianist and vocalist Nat “King” Cole, passed on New Year’s Eve of congestive heart failure at age 65.
More than just a hashtag: the ongoing fight to get justice for Sandra Bland
Supporters outside the federal building chanted Sandra Bland’s name repeatedly and after the rally, flooded Judge Hittner’s courtroom to show strength in numbers and support for the family of Sandra Bland.
Craft for Christmas
Amid a tepid economy, America’s burgeoning “maker” movement is breeding a whole new generation of creative Black entrepreneurs. They are betting their futures not on traditional jobs, but on serious craft.
Whether hand-sewn, hand-made, home-forged, hand-cut or garage-built, these risk takers rely on a very old-school concept: If you have a craft, nobody can ever take your career away.
The rapid rise of Black entrepreneurs in the maker space is due, in part, to greater incubator spaces, cheaper access to collaborators, and possibly to dramatically higher Black unemployment. This has made some people much more aggressive about pursuing passions and opportunities outside of the norm.
Mizzou protest not an isolated incident
A University of Minnesota student group last year presented a lengthy list of demands to top school officials and held a sit-in protest at a campus building this past February. Yale University students of color last week presented a similar list to its school president, with a five-day deadline to respond.
Hundreds celebrate as nation’s African American museum nears completion
Hundreds of people gathered at an inaugural event for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture Monday night here to celebrate the completion of the museum’s exterior in a year that marks three significant moments in American history.
Public radio and the diversity problem
Public radio historically has been diversity-challenged. This American Life’s Stephanie Foo recently wrote for broadcast a “manifesto on diversity in public radio” that uniquely pointed out “all the excuses” often heard by station execs and others “and offers simple ways to override them.”
Code Switch deepens race conversation on the airwaves
“Diversity is such a loaded term,” said National Public Radio (NPR) journalist Kat Chow, who since 2013 covers race, ethnicity and culture for NPR’s Code Switch team. She spoke at the November 2 Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) Broadcast Journalist Series fall program at the University of St. Thomas’ St. Paul campus.
Veterans honored with housing and haircuts
WASHINGTON — Vincent Wigfall served four tours of duty in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War. Like thousands of veterans who served in that divisive war and others most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, he came back a changed man.
Confederate monuments face scrutiny in Baltimore
“That’s bad history. That’s the kind of history that in an extreme form leads to Dylann Storm Roofs,” he said, referencing the man accused of killing nine Black South Carolina church members in June.
Teenage millionaire entrepreneur, committed to inspiring more teens with Young Entreprenuer University
Bledsoe, who gained national attention for creating a thriving Internet design company, could not fathom the youth’s position…at first.
America nears sweeping reform of criminal justice system
When a new inmate steps behind the walls of a prison in Georgia, the entirety of his or her criminal record and mental state is fed into a complex algorithm called the Next Generation Assessment.
As original Tuskegee Airmen fade, an effort to save the legacy grows
More than 16,000 Tuskegee Airmen made history, but now only about 250 remain. They see each other mostly at funerals these days.
Liberian VP thanks Minnesotans for support during Ebola crisis
Liberia still has problems, and its government is looking for solutions and international help on how to solve the country’s chronic healthcare shortage and needed government services, such as better education, shelters for the homeless and improved road conditions.
