African Americans

Newspaper views New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward as ‘Jungleland’
Jenga Mwendo  |   OW Guest Contributor
May 10 2012

New York Times article

NEW ORLEANS—The New York Times Magazine recently ran a story on my home, the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a place one of the most powerful newspapers in the world insensitively dubbed a “Jungleland.” Contrary to the article, residents of this community are not reconciled to life in the wilderness and we don’t live in an untamed mess of overgrowth or in a forgotten wasteland. We are not resigned to anything; we are fighting to revive our community.

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Drop in Black unemployment has its up and down side
Chris Levister
Mar 1 2012

Happy to be working, but anxious over re-integration

The latest unemployment figures are understandably music to Usama Robert’s ears. Out of work more than two years, the Riverside manufacturing supply chain manager is among the 243,000 Americans who found work in January 2012—far exceeding expectations of 150,000 new jobs. Nationally, the unemployment rate dipped to 8.3 percent.

The United States Labor Department reported unexpected news that the Black unemployment rate dropped from 15.8 to 13.6 percent in January, the lowest unemployment rate for African Americans in almost three years.

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February 7th marks the 11th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
CDC
Feb 7 2012

Blacks account for almost half the people living with a HIV

African Americans and HIV/AIDS
By race/ethnicity, African Americans face the most severe burden of HIV in the United States. At the end of 2007, Blacks accounted for almost half (46%) of people living with a diagnosis of HIV infection in the 37 states and 5 U.S.-dependent areas with long-term, confidential, name-based HIV reporting.

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Redistricting lines cause issues
Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Dec 29 2011

Some supervisors want majority Latino and African American districts

As the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors wrestled with three proposals to redraw district lines, Supervisors Gloria Molina and Mark Ridley-Thomas contended that the current lines were disproportionate, disenfranchising minority groups like Latinos and African Americans.

Molina and Ridley-Thomas said two majority Latino district are needed because Hispanics now comprise 48 percent of the county’s population— about one-third of voting-age residents. They also agreed that one district with an African American plurality is needed.

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Golden State Mutual murals center of controversy
Coby Kindles  |   OW Contributor
Dec 29 2011

State wants to sell, but locals push to keep them

During the 1940s, Golden State Mutual became the largest Black-owned insurance company on the West Coast and it became a cornerstone of the Black community in Los Angeles. It was one of the first companies to offer life insurance to African Americans in L.A.

The company’s headquarters building, located in the West Adams district, was designed by Black architect Paul Williams. The building itself became a piece of Black history, when the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission approved its designation as a Historic-Cultural monument on April 7.

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Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.

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