“Quit Playin”

By Vincent L. Hall, Texas Metro News

I love Labor Day because that’s when the family reunion goes down. Naw, not mama ‘nem; my political family. This group is as diverse and entertaining as my immediate family. Each year, I and the fam’ meet up for breakfast. The Dallas AFL-CIO sponsors the repast to gather up the Union brothers and sisters and signal the kickoff for the upcoming political season. In 1863, then-President Abraham Lincoln issued what was arguably the most significant executive order in American history. Proclamation 95, an unnumbered executive order we know as the Emancipation Proclamation, was de facto labor regulation.

Proclamation 95, like the 13th Amendment that it 31 years later, favored the fundamental freedoms of enslaved workers in deference to the liberties slaveholders exercised for almost 300 years. W.E.B. DuBois once remarked that he saw the American Civil War as a “General Strike.” Throughout the bloodiest war in our history, an estimated 198,000 Black men traded their “pruning hooks” for military issued muskets. These men made up 10% of the Union Army, and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Although Labor Day was created in 1882 by unions, it didn’t gain national acceptance until some blood was shed.

The official legislation making Labor Day a National holiday was passed on June 28, 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed it after 13 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded by U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Military. Like all national holidays in America, Labor Day evolved as a result of people who died for a cause. Check it out, MLK Day, Lincoln’s Birthday, and Veterans Day were all borne of human sacrifice. As you guessed by now, most of those martyrs died honorably fighting for the poor and disenfranchised. The “Pullman Porters” were among those who fought for justice.

Shortly after the Civil War, Industrialist George Pullman, specifically sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. However, when they joined their White counterparts to fight for decent wages and conditions, they were attacked and, in some cases, killed. In the 2015 article titled “Labor Day, the labor movement and Black Americans,” the story of the Pullman Porters was put center stage. “Labor Day was nationally established after the Pullman Strike of 1894 when President Grover Cleveland sought to win political points by honoring dissatisfied railroad workers.

This strike did not include porters or conductors on trains, but racism fueled part of the workers’ dissatisfaction for the Black porters and was never addressed. Pullman porters were Black men who worked in the trains’ cars attending to their primarily White passengers, performing such tasks as shining shoes, carrying bags, and janitorial services. During this period, this profession was the largest employer of Blacks in the nation and constituted a significant portion of the Pullman Company’s workforce. Yet, Blacks were not allowed to join the railroad workers union.

Being excluded from the right to fight for fair work and wages, the Pullman porters formed their own union called the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black union, and A. Philip Randolph was its first president. That name should sound familiar: the first planned March on Washington was Randolph’s brainchild. Set to take place in the 1940s, this demonstration was called off weeks before its kickoff date because President Roosevelt met with Randolph and other civil rights leaders in 1941 and signed an order barring racial discrimination in the federal defense industry.

Roosevelt did so to stop the march from happening.” Labor Day should always be a rich cultural observance that signals the time to get ready for the upcoming election cycle. History and politics are always in lockstep. But history never stops marching, and we should never allow anyone to stop our march to the polls. In the spirit of A. Philip Randolph, I will never miss the Dallas AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast!

Vincent L. Hall is an author, activist, and award-winning columnist.

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., National Newspaper Publishers Association President and CEO

I congratulate New York City Democratic mayoral nominee, Eric Adams. He will be a strong new mayor of our nation’s largest and most diverse city. Adams has promised to address homelessness in the city, a problem that has grown increasingly desperate as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cripple the economy and drive record numbers of individuals into bleak and unwelcoming shelters.

In May 2021, almost 52,000 New Yorkers – including 15,930 children – were sleeping in shelters, the highest rate of homelessness the city has experienced since the Great Depression. Worse still, homeless families are often forced to live in deplorable conditions, including shelters with mold and mildew, mouse and roach droppings, poor heating, bed bugs, asbestos, and broken bathrooms.

This is not what Mayor Bill de Blasio had in mind when he brought new leadership into the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) in 2016 after ordering a comprehensive review of the homeless policies and of conditions at city shelters. As part of that overhaul, the mayor appointed Steven Banks to lead the Department of Homeless Services (DHS).

Banks, a veteran Legal Aid attorney who de Blasio had tapped in 2014 to be commissioner of the city’s Human Resources Administration, was widely praised at the time as the right person to champion the city’s most vulnerable citizens.

Now, Adams – who is all-but-guaranteed to be our next mayor – says that he is considering keeping Banks in his new administration to implement his bold vision for homeless services, including new facilities for those struggling with mental health challenges.

But that, in my opinion, would be a mistake. While Adams lauded Banks for his “fresh ideas” during a recent interview, Adams might want to take another look at the city’s distressing experience managing its homeless population in recent years before reappointing Banks. After a litany of poor management decisions made during the pandemic, when New York’s most vulnerable could least afford bureaucratic mistakes, it has become painfully obvious that it is time for new leadership at the city’s Department of Homeless Services.

In particular, African Americans, Latinx Americans and other people of color are disproportionately, devastatingly impacted by COVID-19 and are also disproportionately entrapped with homelessness across America. The New York City homeless rates are at the tipping point of this growing national problem.

Consider how the city dealt with homeless people living in street “encampments” during the pandemic. The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) warned localities not to clear homeless encampments if emergency shelter is unavailable, arguing that dispersing the homeless people “increases the potential for infectious disease spread” and interrupts any connections they have with local service providers. But during the pandemic, the city nearly doubled the number of encampments and other places that homeless people used to sleep, according to published reports.

The bungling does not end there. The city was also behind plans to house homeless individuals in hotels during the pandemic only to boot them back on the street amid the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant. And the city’s policies have allowed our subway system to become inundated with homeless people looking for safe, warm places to sleep.

The pandemic may have exacerbated these issues, but it certainly did not start them. A report last year from city Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office clearly laid out the poor conditions that have been allowed to take hold in the city’s shelters in recent years.

Of the 91 individual units at shelters examined by inspectors, 92 percent had at least one violation and over a third, 32 units, had four or more violations. Overall, auditors found 264 deficiencies, including missing or broken window guards; ramshackle cribs; babies living in shelters with vermin infestations; exposed electrical outlets, and mold and mildew growth.

No one person, of course, should be held entirely responsible for the failures of a system as vast as New York City’s Department of Homeless Services. But the buck ultimately stops with the person at the top, and in this case it’s Banks. Even The New York Times, after praising Banks in 2015, wrote a critical piece just a year later lambasting the DHS chief for the rising homeless rate and his flip-flopping on housing the homeless in hotels.

There are ways to solve the homeless crisis in New York – getting people into high-quality transitional housing run by culturally attuned and sensitive organizations, making sure shelter staff and outreach workers have the proper tools and training, and improving access to mental health care and drug and alcohol recovery programs, to name just a few. But these are long-term solutions.

For now, the best thing the incoming Adams’ administration can do to remedy the city’s protracted homeless crisis is to pick fresh new leadership for the Department of Homeless Services. It’s long overdue. In fact, New York City efforts to fix and prevent homelessness should serve as a national model for all American cities.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), and Executive Producer and host of The Chavis Chronicles weekly show on PBS television stations throughout the United States. He can be reached at dr.bchavis@nnpa.org

By Tamieka Atkins, Executive Director, ProGeorgia

The recent release of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s biennial report brought welcome news that 95% of Georgia’s voting-eligible population is currently registered to vote. This is a tremendous feat, especially for the state with such a long and sordid history of voter suppression and intimidation.

While reporting largely credits our state’s automatic voter registration (AVR) program for the gains we’ve seen since 2016 when the program was first implemented, it tells an incomplete story about our state’s voter registration success. Grassroots organizers have played a significant role in getting the state to adopt the compulsory registration process and have been extraordinary advocates for voting rights.

For years, organizers and advocates have rallied on the ground, lobbying the state legislature and elected and appointed officials, to draw attention to the importance of making voting easier for Georgians. Only after years of intense indepth research, intense pressure and advocacy, and consequential lawsuits, and just before one of the most consequential presidential elections in recent history, did then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp authorize the revamped AVR process that we benefit from today.

It seems unlikely that state actors, who for nearly two dates allowed motor voter registration to languish, would have authorized this plan were it not for grassroots organizers. One look at the state’s continued attempts at voter suppression shows you that AVR alone is not enough to keep Georgia’s voter registration rates high. In 2017, then-Secretary Kemp oversaw the removal of more than 534,000 voters from the voter rolls just months before he narrowly won the state Governor’s race. As of 2019, more than a quarter million voters have been moved to “inactive” status, making them eligible for removal by 2023. Just last month, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office cancelled more than 101,000 voter registrations.

There is a constant dance Georgia organizers must play to make sure that all who want to vote have a full and fair opportunity to do so. The ever-present reality of voter purging, combined with a looming threat that AVR may not always be an option, means that organizers are working overtime to uphold democracy and make sure that the voices and votes of everyday people are heard.

Recent 2020 Census results reveal that Georgia has become increasingly diverse, with the growth of Black, Hispanic, and Asian communities surging over the past 10 years. As Georgia’s demographics continue to shift, the very people who increasingly comprise critical segments of our society are the same people who are disproportionately targeted by voter suppression.

Georgia’s civic-minded organizers and a broad swath of organizations who work in coalition understand that change happens at the intersection of access, engagement, and representation. Equity and opportunity will only prevail when all people have fair access to the ballot, can rigorously engage on the issues that matter, and have adequate representation to ensure that their voices and votes are manifested in policymaking.

It may be easy to credit a technological process with increasing voter registration in the state. But we cannot and should not shortchange the critical work of organizing and advocacy that takes place here each day. Georgia’s organizers stand on the front lines of civic engagement and voter participation and they – not technology alone – will help shape and safeguard our state’s democracy for generations to come.

By Derrick Johnson and Michele Ruiz

Earlier this Summer, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order, which advances diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility or “DEI&A” initiatives throughout the federal government. With a stroke of the pen, Biden has positively impacted practically every area of federal employment, including hiring policies, training, leadership development, and employee pay and benefits. As leaders in the civil rights and business community who prioritize DEI&A, we applaud the President for taking this next step to address unconscious bias and attract, develop, and support a federal workforce that truly represents our nation.

By issuing the order, Biden is directing each agency head to “…take steps to implement or increase the availability and use of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility training programs for employees, managers, and leadership.”

DEI&A initiatives and training make governments, businesses, and organizations stronger. Surveys show that 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity an important factor when considering employment opportunities. Sixty-one percent of employees believe diversity and inclusion strategies are beneficial and essential. If the federal government wants to attract and retain the best talent, it needs DEI&A training and programs with all deliberate speed.

Bias in policymaking—whether systemic or unconscious—has historically resulted in adverse outcomes for communities of color and other marginalized groups. From immigration legislation to healthcare policy to education, programs need to be designed and implemented with an eye toward how they will affect all citizens, regardless of their race or economic circumstances. According to the White House, overcoming bias in public policy around wages, housing credit, lending, and access to higher education could amount to an additional $5 trillion in gross domestic product in the American economy over the next five years.

Unconscious bias experts cite, and numerous studies demonstrate that not addressing unconscious bias leads to high turnover, low morale, less innovation, increased legal risk, and less effective teams. Without question, making federal service more accessible and fairer to diverse groups is the right thing to do; it is also better for our economy and our democracy. Fact is a diverse, inclusive, creative, and productive federal workforce best reflects the face of the nation at home and abroad. Whether trying to devise solutions to fix the housing crisis or ensure access to broadband technology, it also ensures a range of unique perspectives is incorporated into innovative and public-focused services and solutions the government provides to the American people.

Similar conclusions can be made in the private sector. In 2017 Harvard Business Review/University of Chicago study estimated that corporate employee disengagement and alienation cost companies between $450 and $550 billion per year. That is why many corporate leaders prioritize best-in-class, science-based anti-bias training from the C-Suite to entry-level employees.

If America is going to continue to lead the world by the power of our ideas, as President Biden has said, we must go a step further and lead by the power of our example. Our nation deserves nothing less.

Derrick Johnson is President and CEO of the NAACP and Michele Ruiz is Co-Founder and CEO of BiasSync.

Women and men at the #ArewaMeToo rally in Kano State, Nigeria. Credit: Abubakar Shehu at African Arguments

WASHINGTON, DC – “It is only by being “too much” that new cracks in the wall of patriarchal dictatorships can emerge.”

These words from award-winning blogger and Pan-African feminist activist, Rosebell Kagumire in her essay entitled “African Young Women Resisting Beyond Borders” underscores young African women’s utilization of the Internet to bring attention to sexual violence, police brutality, and gender disparities. A recent chain of events emphasizing resistance on a global stage, has opened the doors for the composition to make its way to the forefront of conversations again.

At the Tokyo Olympics, United States gymnast, Simone Biles, sent shockwaves throughout the world when she withdrew from the team competition and later individual events, to focus on her mental health. Citing the necessity of having her body and mind in sync, the now seven-time Olympic medalist chose not to follow the status quo of “pushing through.” Instead, she used her platform to emphasize the power of using one’s voice and actions to draw attention to unrealistic expectations, supremacy structures, and the muting of victims.

Kagumire does the same by highlighting the various ways these women have developed a collective voice to demand an end to experienced injustices. Her essay begins with an explanation regarding last year’s Twitter uproar after dozens of Ugandan women disclosed they’re victims of sexual assault and harassment. Referencing movements that have pushed for accountability and consequences, Kagumire referred to the viral revealing as “Uganda’s own #MeToo movement.”

“These young women were building on the bravery of women who had earlier told their stories despite the public wrath they faced.”

Noting mounting displeasure, Kagumire explains how the “patriarchal power” structure uses its authority to silence women. Standing in the gap for those afraid to speak publicly, Sheena Bageine, a social media activist, anonymously posted their stories online. Subsequently, her arrest triggered a new Twitter hashtag.

“Young Ugandan women responded, from lawyers to mental health specialists to social media warriors, and the #FreeSheena hashtag trended. Within a few hours, she had become a liability for compromised police who released her on bail. Sheena’s case is still ongoing. But the actions of her peers and the solidarity she evoked shows how agile young women’s mobilization in the digital age is, despite the entrenched hegemonies that still prevail in daily life.”

Kagumire contends in her essay that despite the resistance, “millions of young women across the African continent have found a common voice for community building, organizing, and mobilization, taking advantage of the steady increase of Internet penetration and the proliferation of cheaper smartphones.”

To support this fact, she references a 2019 Afrobarometer report stating, “women who regularly use the Internet has more than doubled over the past five years in 34 African countries.” The percentage increased from 11 to 26. Despite the rise, women are still less likely to own a mobile phone, computer, or phone with Internet capabilities, access the Internet regularly, or receive their news from an online source.

Although accessibility is limited, women like Biles continue to seize opportunities to underline injustices as they arise. Later, in her writing, Kagumire steers the conversation back to the use of hashtags to create awareness around long perceived “women’s issues.”

The #SudanWomenProtest, which began in 2019, targeted the leadership of Omar al Bashir (former Sudan head of state). Thousands of women united in rejecting policies that gave credence to sexist and discriminatory laws. The revolt was a shock to many despite the years of resistance from Sudanese women. Social media provided them with a platform to spread their message abroad, resulting in an overthrow of the Bashir regime.

In areas where online access remains limited, “young feminist movements and collectives remain marginalized even in young people’s movements pushing for political changes.” Kagumire stated. “Young people in Africa are increasingly organizing in search of radical change in the way African nations are governed, to deliver dignity and respect for citizens’ voices. Without the equal participation and leadership of young feminists, however, such a social transformation will remain elusive.”

Absolutes such as these are the reasons it’s imperative for women to gather to strategize and implement plans of action. While the organization of like-minded individuals in many African countries is becoming more of a focus in mainstream media, the years of work is evident.

In 2006, women from various African countries met to establish the African Feminist Forum. According to charter documents, “the space was crafted as an autonomous space in which African feminists from all walks of life at different levels of engagement within the feminist movement such as mobilizing at local levels for women’s empowerment to academia, could reflect on a collective basis and chart ways to strengthen and grow the feminist movement on the continent.”

As many of the movements have hinged upon grassroots efforts, Kagumire points out the necessity of women in parliament positions to generate lasting change. To create a power shift, women must continue to demand that their humanity be recognized even if it’s deemed as “asking for too much.”

About Rosebell Kagumire:

Rosebell Kagumire is also a writer and communications strategist. She is the current curator and editor of AfricanFeminism.com. Kagumire is the co-editor of ‘The Role of Patriarchy in the Roll-back of Democracy, focusing on East Africa and the Horn of Africa (available for free download).

By Phylicia Porter, Candidate for Baltimore’s City Council in the 10^th District

Public safety comes first, especially for our children and seniors. But beyond stopping the violence, reducing harm to victims, and ending cycles of criminalization, safer neighborhoods require us to think holistically about factors outside of the traditional public safety sphere. These include factors related to people, like education or economic opportunity, but also environmental factors as well, like lead paint exposure. Phylicia Porter is building healthy communities by applying her public health lens to create safe neighborhoods for every Baltimorean.

• Rebuilding trust in policing and increasing the effectiveness of the Baltimore Police Department
  • Increasing the number of patrol officers walking the neighborhood and engaging the community. Phylicia will advocate for the Baltimore Police Department to meet local hiring targets and reform operations so that officers spend a greater percentage of their time on proactive policing (i.e., being present in neighborhoods and engaging the community, as opposed to simply responding to calls and reacting to things that have already happened.)
  • Monthly COP walks. Phylicia Porter knows that true public safety comes from community partnerships. She is committed to holding monthly community-on-patrol (COP) walks to highlight key hot spots for neighborhood-assigned police officers to patrol.
  • Supporting Baltimore Police Department’s full compliance with the Department of Justice Consent Decree. Phylicia Porter will work with BPD, the Consent Decree Monitor, and communities in the 10th District, to ensure that the Consent Decree is implemented on schedule and in an effective manner. This includes ensuring appropriate enforcement action is taken when officers break the law.
  • End the use of gag orders.
• Funding and implementing programs that reduce violence and increase harm reduction an
  • Funding violence prevention programs like Safe Streets and Roca. Phylicia Porter will advocate for increased funding to expand programs like Safe Streets and Roca that address violence by intervening before it starts. Phylicia will foster community partnerships to ensure these programs are working as effectively as possible.
  • Expanding the response to the opioid crisis and trying new strategies like safe injection sites. Many years into the onset of the opioid crisis, communities in the 10th District like Morrell Park, Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay, are still waiting for a proportionate response to this public health crisis. Baltimore City now has the highest opioid fatality rate of any City in the U.S. Phylicia Porter will work with Maryland’s Inter-Agency Heroin and Opioid Coordinating Council, the Maryland General Assembly, the Baltimore City Health Department, and community based organizations to expand funding and develop new, innovative approaches like safe injection sites, which have been proven to improve treatment utilization and reduce overdoses and deaths.
• Addressing environmental factors and other public health issues that directly relate to public safety.
  • Addressing Baltimore’s lead paint crisis by identifying, documenting, and remediating problem properties. Lead paint remediation remains a huge challenge in Baltimore. Currently neither the City or the State perform adequate oversight of landlords owning lead paint properties. A 2015 audit confirmed that the state agency responsible for Maryland’s lead program is rarely checking properties, and if a property is checked, it is usually done after a child is found to be poisoned by lead. Phylicia Porter will work with the Maryland Department of Environment, Baltimore Housing, community partners and activists to ensure that homes are being registered, checked, and remediated.
  • Reducing vacant housing, blight, and remediating substandard housing. Public health issues related to housing don’t stop with lead. Poor housing conditions throughout our communities affect our health and public safety. Vacant and blighted housing is an issue in communities across the 10th District. In places like Cherry Hill, public housing units need investment to fix poor conditions including indoor air quality issues that cause asthma. Phylicia Porter will work with the state partners, Baltimore Housing, and community leaders to remediate vacant and blighted housing and ensure that we invest in public housing units and do not displace or reduce our public housing stock.
  • Providing safe routes to school for our children. When our communities are hurting, our children unfortunately hurt the most. The walk or public transit ride to school exposes too many children to violence. Research shows that this affects absenteeism and school performance. Additionally, if care isn’t taken to calm traffic on children’s routes to school, they are at risk for injury or even death from traffic crashes. Phylicia Porter will work with city and state agencies, non-profits, and the community, to ensure that children are able to get to and from school safely.
  • Ensuring we have clean air and lower asthma rates. In addition to indoor air quality issues, we need to ensure that we address the sources of pollution that contribute to Baltimore City’s high rates of childhood and adult asthma.