poverty

Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Apr 18 2013

Counting the Cost

The right wing seems determined to associate President Barack Obama with any government program that helps people on the bottom. Thus the term Obamacare used to attack the health care program that President Obama fashioned and worked with Congress to approve. While Obamacare is not perfect, it brings more people into the healthcare system, and further solidifies the safety net that many have attempted to fray.

Jan 10 2013

Many subjected to brutal prison conditions

Across the country, thousands of children are languishing in abusive prisons and jails. These youth are disproportionately African American and Latino. Most live in poverty.

Many of these children were needlessly pushed out of school and into the juvenile justice system. But schools are just one entry point to the juvenile justice system—a system that too frequently cuts short the life chances of the young people it’s supposed to serve.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Dec 6 2012

Organization helps youth with education, healthcare, social development

Children of the Caribbean Inc. is a nonprofit organization that offers relief and assistance to deserving children across the Caribbean. Founded on June 1, 2010, by Julien Adams and his wife Rosie Hodge-Adams, the foundation delivers assistance in the areas of education, healthcare and social development.

The foundation’s efforts are geared toward resolving the ongoing struggles that some children face every day—poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease—and to replace these struggles with hope for the future.

Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Nov 15 2012

Counting the Cost

After we savor the feeling of sweet success that comes from President Barack Obama’s re-election, there is work to do. Most of us got the outcome that we both worked and hoped for, but we have to resist the temptation to exhale and get on with our work. Before the president takes the oath of office for a second time, African Americans should mobilize around these issues:

Dec 29 2011

National poverty tour

Tavis Smiley shook the rafters of American comfort when he put a human face on the alarming new data about poverty in the nation. He showed the world what being poor looks like with special programming on both his national public television and radio programs.

With nearly 50 million Americans, or one-in-six, now living in poverty, “The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience” kicked off with a roundtable discussion on “The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI” in October.

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.