Stacey Palmer

Organizers see upcoming August 26th event as ‘not just a commemoration but a continuation’ By D. Kevin McNeir On August 28, 1963, an estimated 250,000 descended on the National Mall to participate in one of the largest political rallies for human rights in U.S. history. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, organized by Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph with the goal of garnering nationwide support for civil and economic rights for African Americans, will forever be remembered because of its leader and final speaker, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in which […]

By D. Kevin McNeir Will Biden Administration’s Promise to Provide 804,000 Borrowers with $39 Billion in Automatic Loan Forgiveness Be Met with Further Challenges? Tens of thousands of borrowers with federal student loans have been wondering for many long and agonizing months when their debt load would get a little lighter, given President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to cancel $50,000 in student debt. But with the numerous challenges to and anger over Biden’s continued efforts to reduce, if not cancel student debt, it appears doubtful that many borrowers, especially Blacks who are disproportionately burdened, will ever be provided a path toward a more secure state of financial stability and economic […]

Freddie Jackson, R&B icon, now 66, ‘counts the moments not the numbers’  By D. Kevin McNeir In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared that June would be Black Music Month – setting aside a month to recognize the incredible influence that Black music has had on the U.S. and the world. Now more than four decades later, the annual observation continues for at least three reasons: 1) It’s a celebration of history as a lot of African American music is also linked to important historical events in America including the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement; 2) It’s a celebration of diversity, reminding us that not only is there unity […]

By D. Kevin McNeir Just over a year ago (April 2022), The Washington Informer, in a news report written in collaboration with Word in Black, an initiative of 10 of the nation’s leading Black publishers that frames narrative and fosters solutions for racial inequities in America, examined how D.C. Public School (DCPS) librarians were responding to the growing push for book bans across the U.S. One librarian, as the reporter, Sam P.K. Collins noted, described the controversial issue of banning books from the perspective of her Ward 6 school – a perspective which stood in stark contrast to the experiences of her colleagues in more conservative strongholds like South Carolina […]

Thurgood Marshall’s Hard Work Led to the End of Legalized Racial Segregation in Schools But Standardized Tests Have Surreptitiously Succeeded in Keeping Black Students Back By D. Kevin McNeir @mcneirdk On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. Thurgood Marshall, a brilliant lawyer, and jurist who later broke the color barrier as the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice, served as the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. This historic decision marked the end of the “separate but equal” […]