Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist “The landscape of any Tennessee Williams play is the human heart, and I have a cast of people with heart.” -Emily Mann, director of the new Broadway revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” with an all-Black cast. Like Hollywood, Broadway has historically been reluctant to cast African Americans in mainstream [...]

By Zenitha Prince Special to NNPA Newspapers It’s as if time has stood still— decades after civil rights leaders and lawmakers secured the right to vote freely, African Americans are fighting the same old battles at the polls, according to the latest edition of a major annual report. Voting rights remain the biggest issue facing [...]

By Cassandra Lans Milwaukee County Supervisor Nikiya Q. Harris joined many community activists to express their feelings regarding the temporary injunction against the recently adopted Voter ID law that was issued by Dane County Judge David Flanagan. Harris spoke at a press conference held late Tuesday afternoon at St. Mark’s AME Church at 1616 W. [...]

By Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist “We hope what youngsters get out of the story is that under some dire circumstances we prevailed. We performed successfully and we opened doors that they don’t have to fight to.” Col. Charles McGee, “Red Tails” technical consultant and surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen Last week, I attended [...]

This week, the NAACP announced that president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous will speak at the National Action Network’s (NAN) The Emancipator (Abraham Lincoln) To the Liberator (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) Official Rally & March on Saturday, August 27th 2011, in Washington, DC. “This is an historic moment in civil rights and American history,” [...]

By Marc H. Morial President and CEO of the National Urban League “It is clear that the unemployment numbers throughout the country require effective legislation and tangible action to address the crisis. To address the unemployment crisis and the need for job creation solutions in underserved communities, the CBC has called upon the private and [...]

By Marc H. Morial, NNPA Columnist “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rarely have the divisions in American politics been more clear – or more onerous. In less than a month, on August 2nd, if Congress refuses to [...]

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.” Homeownership, as we know it, could be a thing of the past if a proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage Rule (QRM) takes effect. In a letter I sent last week to the heads of the six federal agencies charged with [...]

By Marc H. Morial National Urban League trains African Americans for Corporate Boards What do American Express, Merck, Xerox, Darden Restaurants, and Citibank have in common? All are Fortune 500 companies headed by African Americans: Ken Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express; Ken Frazier, President and CEO of Merck; Ursula Burns, Chairwoman and CEO [...]

By Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist Next Thursday, I invite you to join the debate about the number one issue facing the nation – the deep and persistent jobs crisis that has been especially devastating in urban communities of color. As part of the National Urban League’s annual Legislative Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., we [...]