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Black America

Farming While Black

August 29, 2024 Next City. , , ,
Once upon a time, 14%of farmers in the United States were Black. That was in 1910. But that number has dwindled. Today, Black farmers comprise less than 2% of all growers across the country. On this week’s episode, our host Lucas Grindley notes: “That's more than 14 million acres of lost land.” This loss, along with the discrimination and violence perpetrated against African-American farmers and the current movement of more Black people returning to agriculture and land stewardship, is the subject of the documentary “Farming While Black,” which was released in 2023. Mark Decena, the writer and director of the documentary, describes it as a Venn diagram of social justice, climate justice and food sovereignty.

James Baldwin At 100

August 15, 2024 Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post. , , ,
James Baldwin would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Aug. 2, had he lived so long. He didn’t: He died young. He was but 63 on Dec. 1, 1987, the day he slipped away at the shabby-grand house in Saint–Paul-de–Vence, France, where he had lived since 1970, a refugee from … from a lot of things, not least America and what it was on the way to becoming.  There is a long, strange story behind the house and Baldwin’s residence in it, told satisfactorily in Jules Farber’s not-brilliantly-written James Baldwin: Escape From America, Exile in Provence (Pelican Publishing, 2016).  Harlem, Paris, a Swiss hamlet where he was the first black man the townsfolk had ever seen...

The Farmers Who Can’t Afford Farms

August 14, 2024 Joseph Bullington, In These Times. , , , ,
Running a small farm is complicated enough. For Tessa Parks — who raises cattle and hay with her spouse, Wyatt, on the gentle, farmed-over hills outside Northfield, Minn. — the challenges include bottle-feeding calves, braving bad weather to check on the herd at pasture and dealing with customers at the farmers market. Climate change doesn’t make it easier, as it lends intensity to droughts and storms and increases livestock disease risks. But for Parks, a 28-year-old beginning farmer, the complexities don’t end there. Farming, for her, also means juggling relationships with five different landowners the couple rents a patchwork of hayfields and pasture from.

Developers Halt Grain Elevator That Would Disrupt Black Historic Sites

August 12, 2024 Seth Freed Wessler, ProPublica. , , ,
A development company abruptly halted plans for a sprawling grain export facility in Louisiana this week after a three-year campaign led by members of a Black community who said it would have ripped through rural neighborhoods, old plantation tracts and important historic sites. At the start of a meeting on Tuesday, Greenfield LLC announced that it was “ceasing all plans” to construct the $400 million, milelong development in the middle of the town of Wallace in St. John the Baptist Parish. After a company spokesperson made the announcement in a small Wallace church, community members seated in the pews burst into jubilant cheers.

Waves Of Protests Follow Police Killing Of Sonya Massey

August 5, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
On July 6, 36-year-old Black woman Sonya Massey was shot and killed by white police officer Sean Grayson after inviting the police into her own home, seeking protection from a potential intruder. On July 22, body camera footage was released to the public of Massey’s killing, shocking the nation and harkening to previous examples of police violence against Black people. The body camera footage that has emerged has shed light on a particularly disgusting case of police impunity. As a result, protests have erupted over the past few weeks across the country, including in major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Community Holds Public Hearing For Police Murder Of John Zook Jr.

August 4, 2024 Emma Boyhtari, Left Voice. , , , ,
On Wednesday, July 10 in Westland, MI, several organizations, along with family and community members, organized and attended a public hearing about a young Black man — John Zook Jr. — who was killed by police on June 18 after he called emergency services on himself in the midst of a mental health crisis. The event, organized and sponsored by several groups, including Survivors Speak, Black Coffee, Detroit Will Breathe, Washtenaw County General Defense Committee, and others, began with speeches by family members. Attendees heard from John’s sister, his brothers, and his father. John’s brothers were the first to arrive at the scene of the shooting.

You’re With Her, But Is She With You?

July 31, 2024 Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Over the past few weeks, the lack of fervor for Democrats surrounding the 2024 election has changed dramatically. President Biden has stepped aside and Vice President Kamala Harris has taken over as the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. According to her campaign, within 36 hours of President Biden announcing his withdrawal, Vice President Harris raised more than $100 million, including $81 million in the first 24 hours. A record number of organizations run by and in support of African American women joined a “Win With Black Women” call to focus on a new future for voter mobilization. 

In Milwaukee, Many Black Voters Aren’t On Board With Either Party

July 31, 2024 Malaika Jabali, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
In recent years, both Democrats and Republicans have been vying for the attention of Wisconsin’s Black residents, who are largely concentrated in Milwaukee, the most populous city in this critical swing state. The Democratic Party chose the city as its convention host in 2020, with Republicans following suit this year. Today, Harris is expected to be in Milwaukee for what could now be her first official campaign stop as she vies for the presidency, with Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes up for grabs. But the frenzy of outreach from party leaders to lure voters who have been disenfranchised for generations is like trying to sweep water out of the Titanic.

Democratic Party Turmoil, African Americans And Attempted Trump Assassination

July 18, 2024 Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
An attempted assassination of former United States President Donald Trump while he addressed a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania has been blamed on monumental intelligence and security failures by the Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement agencies. Hosting an open-air rally with thousands of participants in an area where there were unsecured rooftops and trees cannot be explained away absent a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting. One person attending the rally was killed instantly by some of the bullets fired. Two other people were critically wounded.

Juneteenth: Embracing The Power Of Awareness And Repair

June 19, 2024 Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, Scheer Post. , , ,
When President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, I initially saw it as a symbolic gesture, unable to replace the concrete legislation needed to address the challenges faced by the Black community in America. However, as time passed and I had conversations with my white friends who had no idea about its historical origins, I started realizing the true importance of Juneteenth. It is not just another holiday, but a valuable lesson for America—a chance to confront its past and make amends for ongoing injustices. Juneteenth is a day that marks the liberation of enslaved African Americans in Texas. Can you believe it took more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation for them to learn they were finally free?

Juneteenth: Black Liberation Through Revolutionary Struggle

June 19, 2024 Nino Brown, Liberation News. , , ,
On June 19, 1865 Major General Gordon Granger and 1,800 Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, nearly two months after General Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy surrendered in the decisive battle of Appomattox, to announce that slavery finally ended with the issuing of General Order Number 3. This order stated: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” This declaration claimed that there would be “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”

A Report On Police Misconduct During The George Floyd Protests

June 6, 2024 Defending Rights & Dissent. , , , , , ,
On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes. Tens of millions of people took to the streets, not only in outrage, but with a fervent hope that people coming together and demanding justice would lead to safer communities for Black Americans—and for everyone. From day one of the protests, police unleashed horrors on protesters. Cops dressed in riot gear fired less-lethal weapons into crowds of unarmed civilians, sometimes within seconds of arriving at the scene. The weapons were “less-lethals” but they still resulted in gruesome, and in some cases permanent, injuries.

Chicago Black Church Creating A New Village On The South Side

May 5, 2024 Cinnamon Janzer, Next City. , , ,
It will take a village to build a new future for Chicago’s South Side. And building that village is going to take a few decades. But the Black-led church behind the fledgling Imani Village is playing the long game. Anchored in the city’s Pullman neighborhood, Imani Village is a social enterprise owned and operated by the nearby Trinity United Church of Christ. It’s dedicated to empowering the traditionally underserved community and those surrounding it through the creation of an eco-friendly, intergenerational, mixed-use development.

Repression Of Campus Palestine Solidarity Reveals Nature Of The State

May 3, 2024 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , , , , ,
“As the ICJ is saying, there’s a possibility of a genocide happening. And we’re seeing our government continually sending more and more weapons, 2,000 pound bombs that are being dropped on whole neighborhoods. Schools being destroyed, hospitals being destroyed, and all our government can say is, ‘Well we’re going to ask the Israelis what happened in this situation,’ in situation, after situation, after situation. And there is no accountability for what we’re seeing with our own eyes. We’re giving him that Morehouse degree, that honorary doctorate saying you’re one of us.

District To Celebrate Emancipation Day Amid Congressional Interference

April 10, 2024 Sam P. K. Collins, The Washington Informer. , , ,
As Kelsye Adams gears up for D.C. Emancipation Day festivities, she’s focused, now more than ever, on driving home the point to District residents that her hometown’s lack of statehood exacerbates many, if not all, of local policy issues. “We’re not able to make our laws, rules and regulations,” said Adams, a founding core organizer of Hands Off DC, a coalition of more than 50 organizations dedicated to rebuffing congressional interference in local affairs. “It’s blasphemous that residents don’t have a voice.” More than a year ago, Adams joined Nee Nee Taylor, Makia Green, Alex Dodds and a litany of other organizers and organizations in launching the Hands Off DC movement.
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