Tagged With "Black and Latinx"
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U.S. Coast Guard honors Black veteran, NFL great
Above is U.S. Coast Guard photo of Emlen Tunnell, who served in the Coast Guard during and after World War II, was the first Black player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Before he became the first Black player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Emlen Tunnell served in the U.S. Coast Guard during and after World War II, where he was credited with saving the lives of two shipmates. Now, a Coast Guard cutter and an athletic building on the Coast Guard Academy campus are...
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Black history explains why COVID-19 has ravaged that community | Opinion
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist By Hamid Shaaban Black History Month is often observed by commemorating Black excellence and honoring the remarkable achievements and contributions of Black people in the United States and around the world. This month, I propose to all my colleagues in healthcare and medicine to promote and advance education about the history of medical racism. That history is Black history and it is often neglected and remains largely unacknowledged. It’s important to...
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Doug Williams - First Black Quarterback to Win Super Bowl XXII
On January 31st, 1988 Doug Williams made history. But before that historic day, Williams was already a history-maker. One of the greatest HBCU athletes of all time, Doug Williams career started as a Freshman at Grambling State University under legendary head coach Eddie Robinson. Williams was a four-year starter for GSU, leading the Tigers to a 36-7 record, three Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) titles and was awarded the Black College Player of the Year twice. 1977 Williams finished...
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New Jersey's Underground Railroad
Lawnside, New Jersey The Peter Mott House is the oldest known house to serve as a station on the Underground Railroad in New Jersey. Elizabeth and Newark New Jersey Jersey City - The last stop Before the Civil War, Jersey City was the last stop on the New Jersey Underground Railroad route for many runaway slaves seeking freedom. The quest for freedom prompted an estimated 100,000 19th century black slaves to make the dangerous journey along the Underground Railroad. That term refers to the...
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Black Enterprise - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Virtual Summit 2021
PLEASE CHECK THE CALENDAR FOR DETAILS.
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Bass Reeves: The Real Lone Ranger Was Black
If you’re like me, you remember watching the popular television show, The Lone Ranger, where it depicted a white man who wore a disguise on a white horse and had a Native American counterpart with him named Tonto. The story we are most familiar with started out as a radio show, then a popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, then comic books, and several cartoons and big-budget movies. But like many things during slavery, history may have been obscured and the actual “Lone Ranger”...
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Racial Equity and Philanthropy
“... Philanthropy is overlooking leaders of color who have the most lived experience with and understanding of the problems we are trying to solve.”
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Black History NJ: The Complete Series
Jersey Joe Walcott Arnold Raymond Cream, aka Jersey Joe Walcott, was born in Merchantville, NJ, on Jan. 31, 1914. He held the record for the oldest heavyweight champion for more than four decades. His father, an immigrant from Barbados, died when Walcott was 15, which forced him to go to work to provide for his mother and younger siblings. At 16-years-old, he began boxing professionally and adopted Jersey Joe Walcott as his moniker… Carla Harris Montclair resident Carla Harris is an author,...
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Kathleen Neal Cleaver | Winona LaDuke | Naomi Klein
Kathleen Neal Cleaver In the '60s, Kathleen Neal Cleaver was a prominent member of the Black Panther Party, in which she created the position of communications secretary. In 1998, she said , "I think it is important to place the women who fought oppression as Black Panthers within the longer tradition of freedom fighters like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida Wells-Barnett, who took on an entirely oppressive world and insisted that their race, their gender, and their humanity be respected...
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The Path Forward
A discussion on racial equity in housing and an inclusive economy One in three households — nearly 100 million people across the U.S. — struggle with housing costs that jeopardize their financial security, according to the Aspen Institute. As one of the biggest determinants of financial and physical health, housing can influence a person’s access to education, health care and job opportunities, and has the ability to transform entire communities and strengthen the economy. And yet, while the...
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Antonia Hernández
According to Antonia Hernández, she “went to law school for one reason: to use the law as a vehicle for social change.” Decades later, she can claim numerous legal victories for the Latinx community in the areas of voting rights, employment, education, and immigration. From legal aid work, to counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, to head of a major civil rights organization, Hernández has used the law to realize social change at every turn. Antonia Hernández was born in Torreón, Mexico...
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Why Atlantic City’s minority neighborhoods are also its most flooded
ANDREW S. LEWIS | NJ Spotlight When Veronica Grant reflects on growing up in the Venice Park section of Atlantic City in the 1970s, regular nuisance flooding isn’t a memory that comes to mind. Yet these days, high tides spill across the neighborhood’s streets and yards so frequently that Grant can’t keep count. Flooding has been a reality in Atlantic City since its founding a century-and-a-half ago, but it has never been as frequent as it is today. Since 1911, the city’s tide station has...
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Sen. Booker, Reps. Adams & Underwood Introduce Black Maternal Health Week Resolution
22 Co-sponsors in the Senate and over 47 in the House join resolution to raise national awareness of the state of Black maternal health in the United States. WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representatives Alma Adams (NC-12) and Lauren Underwood (IL-14) introduced a resolution recognizing Black Maternal Health Week, “to bring national attention to the maternal health crisis in the United States and the importance of reducing maternal mortality and morbidity among Black...
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Black Maternal Health Week, Apr. 11-17
Black Maternal Health Week takes place each year from April 11-17. Learn more about this year’s goals, which are to: Deepen the national conversation about Black maternal health in the US; Amplify community-driven policy, research, and care solutions; Center the voices of Black Mamas, women, families, and stakeholders; Provide a national platform for Black-led entities and efforts on maternal health, birth and reproductive justice; and Enhance community organizing on Black maternal health.
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Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM)
April is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). Currently, the Division on Women (DOW) supports statewide community-level primary prevention efforts to prevent sexual violence. To advance these efforts, we work with non-traditional partners and consider them as experts in their own lives and community pillars for change . We believe that impactful primary prevention efforts begin with community engagement and providing tools to communities so they can empower themselves. As such, our...
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A century later, she still bears witness to a race massacre - Tulsa Massacre May 31 – June 1, 1921
Viola Ford Fletcher is also still waiting for justice. By TONY NORMAN • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette America has been telling Viola Ford Fletcher to wait for justice ever since she was 7 years old. Now a spry 107, Fletcher is running out of patience with America. Delivered by midwife on a farm in Lawton, Okla., on May 10, 1914, Fletcher was born 138 years after the American experiment commenced in 1776. As a Black daughter of Oklahoma, she had no more reason to believe in America’s promises than...
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THE POLYNESIAN PANTHER PARTY
The Polynesian Panthers were a liberation activist group that fought for Polynesian and Māori empowerment in New Zealand. Inspired by the Black Power movement in the United States, along with Māori protests within the country, inner city youth in Auckland were emboldened to stand against capitalism and to fight for visibility. Auckland’s urban areas were filled with Pacific Islander immigrants, and their Kiwi-born children, who were subjected to police brutality, faced harsh discrimination,...
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100 Years later| Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre| Premieres May 30 at 8/7c | The HISTORY Channel
In the 1920s, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street, was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. Filled with booming businesses and thriving entrepreneurs, the district served as a mecca of Black ingenuity and promise, until the evening of May 31, 1921, which marked the start of the devastating Tulsa Race Massacre. More than thirty-five city blocks were burned to the ground and hundreds of Black city dwellers were...
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Systemic Racism & Health Care: Building Black Confidence in the COVID-19 Vaccine
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The secret sale of Henrietta Lacks cancer research cells. Jim Crow laws affecting African Americans' ability to receive medical treatment. For weeks, it’s been hard to hear over the clamor of millions of Americans lining up for COVID-19 vaccines. But not everyone has been enthused — namely, large swaths of minority communities, which comprise the populations disproportionately impacted by the virus, but whose hesitance is largely fueled by the country’s...
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West Point statue honors famed Buffalo Soldiers
Black cavalry unit taught horsemanship to white cadets, suffered racism. By SARAHMASLIN NIR and PRECIOUS FONDREN New York Times WEST POINT, N.Y. – A large crowd watched expectantly as a soldier tugged at a black cloth spread over a monumental statue on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Friday. As it fell away, it revealed a bronze statue of a Black soldier sitting astride a stallion, a tribute to the U.S. Army’s famed Black cavalry — the Buffalo Soldiers — who for...
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Cesarean deliveries decline in N.J., but childbirth complications rise for Black, Hispanic mothers
By Elizabeth Llorente | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Cesarean deliveries declined slightly in New Jersey, but Black and Hispanic mothers again experienced more childbirth complications than white women, continuing a long pattern in the state, according to a newly released report. Black women for years have had a maternal mortality rate seven times higher than white women in the state. The New Jersey Report Card of Hospital Maternity Care, released Monday by the state Health Department and...
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Hispanic families’ experiences of child care closures during COVID-19 (Child Trends Webinar)
Webinar Join the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families for a webinar on Wednesday, October 13th at 1:00 p.m. ET to discuss Latino families’ experiences with COVID-19-related child care closures and disruptions. Presenters will discuss how these closures and disruptions have affected parents’ employment and families’ overall well-being. Presenters: Dr. Kevin Ferreira van Leer is an assistant professor in child and adolescent development at California State University,...
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New Jersey Hispanic Heritage Month Happenings
Dowdell Library On Sept. 27 , Dowdell Library will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Marcia Mercado by reading stories in Spanish and English, listening and dancing to traditional music and making crafts, including a Frida Kahlo mural created by the community. The online catalog makes it easy to search for resources focused on Hispanic history and lived experience. Jersey City Library The library will be honoring one of its own: Hugo Morales , an Ecuadorian-born artist who tragically...
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Black Heroes and Inventors
Meet African War Hero Who Sank A German Ship With Bomb Made From Milk-Can But Was Refused Highest Decoration During World War II, Job Maseko , a South African war hero, sunk an enemy ship with an improvised bomb hidden in a milk container. Maseko, a member of the South African Native Military Corps (NMC), was awarded the Military Medal for his “meritorious and courageous” action, which he described as demonstrating “ingenuity, resolve, and full disregard for personal safety.” The Military...
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‘Diaries of A Black Girl in Foster Care’ Podcast Launches
A new podcast series beginning Wednesday, Feb. 23 will explore the unique issues of Black girls who experience foster care in America. Diaries of A Black Girl in Foster Care (which uses @BlkGrlDiariesFC on social media platforms) will begin with three episodes that address cultural issues, racial disparities and stereotypes that organizers argue have contributed to poor outcomes for Black girls in America’s various foster care systems. “Everybody can get something out of this, not just Black...
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Shopping while Black: Bridgewater mall incident amplifies talk of racism in retail spaces.
By Vashti Harris | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com and Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com For Tionni Kennedy, Bridgewater Commons mall is a place she frequently visits to hang out with friends, browse through stores, and gab over meals in the food court. It’s also where Kennedy, who is Black, said she often encounters racism. The 17-year-old from Piscataway feels the glare of store workers when she walks into shops and notices how they always seem to follow her as she looks at...
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Systemically Neglected How Racism Structures Public Systems to Produce Child Neglect
In recent years, more than a quarter of a million children each year have been removed from their families and placed in foster care because of alleged neglect and these children are disproportionately Black or Indigenous. Too often, circumstances stemming from poverty are construed as neglect, but underlying both poverty and neglect is historic and present-day racism. This report outlines the history of how child protective services developed to over-surveil families of color, examines how...
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Educational and social deficits worsen among NJ students
Eric Scott | NJ1015 After two years of remote learning and hybrid classes, New Jersey's K-12 students continue to struggle and are in danger of falling even farther behind. Even with in-person learning since the start of the current school year, the struggles are evidence in every grade level. The non-profit education advocacy group JerseyCAN recently completed the first comprehensive look at so-called 'learning loss,' and the results should alarm every parent. On average, New Jersey...
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Latest News
We must combat the myth of declining homelessness — in New Jersey and beyond | Opinion Paul R. Shackford | The Bergen Record via Yahoo.com Last fall, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge announced the “House America” program to fund the rehousing of 100,000 families and the building of 20,000 affordable housing units. The goal is admirable but the reality here in Bergen County is that affordable rentals are a myth. The opportunity for local working families to find...
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The NJ Office of Resilience Has Shifted Its Focus from Self-Healing Communities Model to Healing-Centered Engagement Model
The shift to a Healing-Centered Engagement Model releases culture as a root cause of trauma, to instead celebrate the intrinsic resilience and the capacity to promote PCEs that ethnic history, racial and other social identities afford. This is particularly important for white, privileged communities to embrace, given their historical diminishment of non-white cultures.