Category Archives: TMSJRC

  • Rosalynn Carter showed the world a new vision of the first lady with mental health care as her primary focus

    January 18, 2024 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir   Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, an ardent supporter of women’s rights and a champion of mental health and caregiving, died peacefully on Sunday, Nov. 19, at her Plains, Georgia home, surrounded by her family. Mrs. Carter, who died at age 96, and Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, now 99, were married for 77 – the longest married presidential couple in U.S. history. Among her favorite sayings, Mrs. Carter often said, “Do what you can to show you care about others and you will make our world a better place.” Following her move from life in a rural farming community to the […]

  • For African American seniors, even 60 years after his death, JFK remains ‘our president’

    January 18, 2024 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir In the not so distant past, three portraits held a prominent place in the homes of thousands of African Americans – a fitting tribute to men who had been an integral part of the road traveled by Blacks in their long journey toward achieving equality. The first was Jesus, the quintessential model of unconditional love and hope. Second, there was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the personification of the moral crusade which led to the end of legal segregation. Finally, there was JFK – President John F. Kennedy. Including Kennedy in this triad of men may seem puzzling, particularly for those born after the turbulent 60s […]

  • St. Louis monument honors Dred Scott’s fight for freedom

    November 6, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir Dred Scott, born in Southampton, Virginia in 1799, was a slave living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1846 with his wife and their two children, when he, like so many others before and after him, set his mind on securing their freedom. However, instead of hitching a ride on the Underground Railroad, he chose a less common means – the U.S. court system. Now, 165 years after the U.S. Supreme Court case was decided and which bears his name, Scott’s gravesite at Calvary Cemetery & Mausoleum, in St. Louis, that went unmarked for nearly 100 years after his death, serves as a memorial to his life […]

  • Sixty years later, songstress Candi Station relives the 16th Street Church bombing

    November 6, 2023 by Comments are off

    New song, ‘1963,’ pays tribute to the four girls killed in heinous attack By D. Kevin McNeir Years before she was known for classic R&B tunes like “Young Hearts Run Free,” “You Got the Love,” and “Nights on Broadway,” the legendary soul singer Candi Staton was provided with a front row seat to civil rights history. She was a young mother with two toddlers when four members of the local Ku Klux Klan chapter, with 19 sticks of dynamite, blew up the historic 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, in Birmingham, AL. The explosion killed four young girls; Addie Mae Collins (14), Carol Denise McNair (11), Carole Rosamond Robertson (14) and […]

  • Sixty years later, Americans commemorate March on Washington, lament its unfinished agenda

    October 30, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir On a picture perfect summer day, thousands gathered on the National Mall on Saturday, August 26, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, many demanding that America overcome its centuries-old history of racial inequities so that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream may finally be fulfilled. One icon in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association, said he attended the event with fears that far too many Americans underestimate the impact of poverty, hatred and racism, which are all “very alive and well.” “Yes, we have achieved significant progress since 1963 and the Civil Rights […]

  • Despite the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voter suppression continues

    October 30, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir On March15, 1965, a week after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson delivered a nationwide address in which he declared that “all Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race.” Johnson informed the nation that he was sending a new voting rights bill to Congress, and he urged Congress to vote the bill into law. Congress complied, and President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6, 1965. The impact of the bill The bill outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests and other practices that had effectively prevented southern blacks from voting. It authorized the U.S. attorney general to send federal officials to the South to register […]

  • National monument established to honor Emmett Till and mother, Mamie Till-Mobley

    October 30, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir On July 25, 2023 – what would have been the 82nd birthday of Emmett Till – President Joe Biden established a new national monument that will honor a mother and her son – two figures at the center of one of the darkest and most tragic periods in civil rights history. The monuments will span three sites across two states, each dedicated to a different part of the tragedy experienced by Emmett Till, the Black teenager abducted and murdered in 1955, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who was determined to make sure her son’s story and sacrifice were not forgotten. Biden established the monument during a […]

  • Affirmative Action may be banned but America has miles to go before it can claim to be a ‘race neutral’ society

    July 31, 2023 by Comments are off

    By D. Kevin McNeir The Supreme Court justices, in striking down affirmative action in higher education and voting along ideological grounds – the conservatives members in the majority – recently determined that race-conscious admissions programs violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. In the words of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., “the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race.” But for those who have not yielded to the alluring nature of baseless assertions that proliferate social media and “fake news” and are willing to take a realistic look at the current state of race relations in America, […]

  • Civil Rights Activists Prepare for 60th Anniversary of March on Washington

    July 27, 2023 by Comments are off

    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 […]

  • Student Loan Debt Has Greatest Impact on Blacks, Despite Most Recent Freeze in Payments

    July 17, 2023 by Comments are off

    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 […]