The documentary of Aretha’s live recording of the best-selling gospel album of all time By Dwight Brown NNPA News Wire Film Critic Back in the day, if you couldn’t get to church on Sunday to hear the pastor’s sermon, you’d put on Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace album, the best-selling gospel record of all time, and ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire The FBI has released it’s 2017 hate crimes statistics which revealed a 17 percent increase in incidents since 2016. In 2017 there were 8,493 victims and 6,307 known offenders. By comparison there were 7,509 victims and 5,727 known offenders in 2016, according to the data. “This report is a ...

By Dr. Benjamin Chavis As a member of the infamous Wilmington Ten case in North Carolina from 1972 to 2012, I witnessed firsthand why the criminal justice system in the United States needed to be thoroughly reformed. We had been unjustly sentenced in 1972 to a combined total of 282 years in prison for standing ...

Mayor Robert Garcia and City Prosecutor Doug Haubert announced a first-of-its-kind program in Long Beach, Restoration Initiative for Safety and Employment (RISE), which will provide free assistance to those who are eligible to seal their low-level misdemeanor or felony records, clear a minor warrant, enroll in court diversion programs, and convert court fines to community ...

By Dianne Anderson Thanksgiving isn’t just a feel-good moment for Robert Flournoy and friends. He says he passed that stage over 20 years ago. “Now it’s the passion to do it, and the drive to accomplish it,” said Flournoy, founder and director of the nonprofit Loaves and Fishes X 10. It could be said that ...

By Julianne Malveaux As strange as it seems, I now view the Bush years with nostalgia. Both Big Bush (POTUS 41) and his son Shrub (POTUS 43) incurred the ire of Democrats, with Shrubs Supreme Court-complicit theft of the 2000 election prompting anger and protests. Both Bushes, perhaps because of their love of country, comported ...

By Charlene Crowell Do you ever get the feeling that when it comes to news about the nation’s economy you’re in a different world? I certainly do. And what’s more, I think much of America – especially Black America — feels the same. A decade has passed since the housing collapse.  In that time, bank ...

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement: “Last night, Democrats elected the most diverse group of candidates in our party’s history. Voters across the country sent a loud and clear message that our leaders should represent the diversity of our country. “Michelle Lujan Grisham was elected as the first Latina Democratic governor, while Sylvia ...

By Julianne Malveaux At this writing, Megyn Kelly is off the air at NBC. After her horridly vapid statement saying she didn’t see anything wrong with blackface, she apologized the next day and even invited journalist Roland Martin on to take her to school. Roland did a brilliant job in explaining the history of blackface ...

By Charlene Crowell One of the most reliable measures of a community’s economic vitality is convenient access to full-service banking. Regardless of whether a community is urban, suburban or rural, both consumers and local businesses rely on brick and mortar bank branches for a wide array of products and services. New research that measures how ...