By Paul LeBlanc Lawmakers will resume a slate of tense negotiations this week over voting rights, infrastructure and police reform as President Joe Biden’s agenda enters an important week on Capitol Hill. Looming large over the deliberations is the July 4 recess in the Senate, which begins at the end of the week and could
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By Christina Carrega and Joe Beare William R. Underwood was a 17-year-old father living in New York City when former President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs.” He admits he chose to sell drugs to earn a living — a move that at 34, landed him in federal prison to serve a life without
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Analysis by Stephen Collinson and Maeve Reston As America finally recognizes the importance of Juneteenth, the full potential of a symbolic new milestone for equality is being undermined by Republican moves to make it harder for many Black Americans to vote. Often in the civil rights struggle, single victories — like this week’s signing of a new law to
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By Coy Wire and Sana Noor Haq Like many Olympians, USA track and field athlete Allyson Felix has been having an eventful journey to Tokyo 2020. With four Games under her belt — and having just qualified for her fifth Olympics at the US trials on June 20 — Felix is an Olympic veteran used to
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By Michael Overall Originally a narrow, mostly unpaved road that zigzagged between farming communities, old Route 7 ran more or less diagonally between Tulsa and the state capital, making it one of the busiest highways in Oklahoma in the early years of statehood. Allen Threatt, a homesteader who came from Alabama sometime in the early
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Opinion by Shelley Stewart and Michael Chui If Juneteenth doesn’t make you think about the economy, maybe it should. Racial discrimination has an obvious human cost, but there’s an economic cost, too. In new research, we examined the disparities Black Americans face in various economic roles — as workers, business owners, savers, investors, consumers and residents.
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By Ashley Vaughan – Before Juneteenth became an official federal holiday, 94-year-old Opal Lee was on a mission. “I’m not just going to sit and rock, you know?” the determined “Grandmother of Juneteenth” told CNN. “The Lord is going to have to catch me.” Days later, the spirited nonagenarian shouted with delight as she watched Congress pass
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By Chauncey Alcorn Major corporations are celebrating Juneteenth in unique ways this week. The annual June 19 tradition, which falls on Saturday this year, commemorates the day in 1865 when former American slaves in Galveston, Texas, were finally informed of President Abraham Lincoln’s January 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War. It took Union
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By Paul LeBlanc States across the country are scrambling to close their government offices Friday after President Joe Biden signed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a US federal holiday. While June 19 — which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States — falls on a Saturday this year, governors across the country announced in
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By Allie Torgan Before the Covid-19 health and economic crisis, the nation’s homeless population was already on the rise. Now, more than a year after the last official population count, many of those working with homeless communities believe numbers are much higher. “I would estimate we’ve got about 8,000 people who are sleeping out on
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