Bishop Tavis Grant named Rainbow/PUSH’s acting national executive director: ‘It’s a tremendous opportunity to do some building and be creative’
Bishop Tavis Grant has worn many hats while in Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. But this month he was appointed the one title he hadn't worn: acting national executive director of Rainbow/PUSH.
chicagotribune.comBiden closes out Black History Month with White House event
President Joe Biden welcomed Black leaders to the White House Monday for a jovial Black History Month celebration, where he used the moment to call on Congress to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, and pass voting rights bills.
In and outside court, Smollett fights for reputation, career
As Jussie Smollett fights criminal charges that he lied to Chicago police about being the victim of an anti-gay, racist attack, his supporters are also working on a broader strategy: Ensuring the 39-year-old emerges from the scandal with his reputation and career intact, whatever the outcome of the trial.
Tensions flare in Arbery death trial as Jesse Jackson visits
A judge denied mistrial requests on Monday at the trial of three white men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery after defense attorneys claimed jurors were tainted by weeping from the gallery where the slain Black man's parents sat with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The judge said he found one defense lawyer's complaints last week about Black pastors to be “reprehensible,” and that no group would be excluded from his courtroom. Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and pursued the 25-year-old Black man in a pickup truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020.
news.yahoo.comJelani Day protest in Peru, Illinois
Activists from around Illinois, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, gathered to call attention to the death of Illinois State University student Jelani Day. Day went missing Aug. 24 in Bloomington, and his body was discovered on Sept. 4 in Peru, Illinois.
chicagotribune.comRev. Jesse Jackson transferred to rehabilitation center, wife moved to ICU with COVID-19
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Aug. 21 with COVID-19, has moved to a rehabilitation center as his symptoms abate, while his wife, Jacqueline, has been moved into the intensive care unit at the hospital, according to their son Jonathan Jackson.
chicagotribune.comJesse Jackson moves to rehab hospital, wife in ICU for COVID
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been transferred to a hospital focused on physical rehabilitation after receiving treatment for a breakthrough COVID-19 infection while his wife, Jacqueline, has been moved to an intensive care unit, according to a family statement released Friday. Jonathan Jackson, one of the couple’s five children, said that his father's COVID-19 symptoms are abating. Jackson has Parkinson's disease and Jonathan Jackson said he will receive “intensive occupational and physical therapy” at The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.
news.yahoo.comCoronavirus latest news: Teachers to be offered overtime for one-to-one tuition
Flu jabs could fail this winter due to Covid emergency, experts warn Hidden immunity: Why booster jabs may not be needed after all Caribbean set for red list as travel experts warn of scramble home Covid-fearing Australian council shoots rescue dogs to stop volunteers travelling How Jacinda Ardern's 'fortress New Zealand' strategy risks crumbling
news.yahoo.comRev. Jesse Jackson, wife Jacqueline hospitalized for COVID
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a famed civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, and his wife have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a statement Saturday. Jesse Jackson, 79, is vaccinated against the virus and received his first dose in January during a publicized event as he urged others to receive the inoculation as soon as possible. “Doctors are currently monitoring the condition of both,” according to the statement from Jesse Jackson's nonprofit, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
news.yahoo.comJesse Jackson among 39 arrested at sit-in at Sinema's office
Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber, were among 39 people arrested Monday after refusing to leave the Phoenix office of Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has faced unrelenting pressure from liberal activists over her opposition to ending the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation. Passing voting rights legislation is a top priority for congressional Democrats and progressive activists, who say it’s essential to push back against state-level efforts by Republicans to impose new restrictions on voting.
news.yahoo.comBlack hospital faces vaccine mistrust from unlikely source
Dr. Rita McGuire, an obstetrician and infection control specialist at Roseland Community Hospital talks Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, with staff members about taking the COVID-19 vaccine. "It’s not something that I trust right now,’’ says Bland, 50, who worries about how quickly the COVID-19 vaccines were developed. Many holdouts come from the mostly Black, working class neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, areas hard hit by the virus yet plagued with vaccine reluctance. She acknowledged "centuries of medical injustice’’ against Black Americans but said COVID-19 vaccines resulted from years of solid research. Many workers ‘’have not forgotten about those studies where they used us as experiments,’’ McGuire said, including the infamous Tuskegee research on Black patients with syphilis.
Jesse Jackson released for therapy post gallbladder surgery
Jackson has been released to a Chicago physical therapy center following gallbladder surgery and medical observation, a spokesman said Sunday, Feb. 7. Jesse Jackson has been released to a Chicago physical therapy center following gallbladder surgery and medical observation, a spokesman said Sunday. Jackson's longtime spokesman Frank Watkins confirmed Sunday it was gallbladder surgery. Jackson is continuing his civil rights and organizational work and is in high spirits,” the organization's statement said. Martin Luther King, Jackson was key in guiding the modern civil rights movement on numerous issues, including voting rights.
Questlove uncovers 'Black Woodstock' in his hit Sundance doc
The film will debut at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. (Sundance Film Festival via AP)Sundance Institute programs. Known as “Black Woodstock,” the festival occurred during the same summer as Woodstock — and just 100 miles away — but received far less attention. It debuted Thursday night at the Sundance Film Festival where it spawned immediate acclaim and countless at-home dance parties for virtual festivalgoers — a party Questlove extended with a live-streamed after-party DJ set. Morris Park for a celebration of soul, gospel, funk and, most of all of Black identity at a pivotal point in African American culture.
Families of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake and Alvin Cole hold Get Out The Vote Rally
Five days before Election Day, the families of victims killed in high-profile cases of police violence are banding together for a voting rally. The families of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Alvin Cole and Jacob Blake will join forces Thursday to encourage residents to vote like their lives depend on it. The event's main goal was to "unite a community in action," according to a press release announcing the rally. Taylor, Floyd and Cole were all killed by police officers earlier this year. We've been crying, we've been protesting, we've been in the courts.
cbsnews.comVoting nearly impossible for eligible voters behind bars
The advocacy organization released a report detailing voting access for jail inmates with Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights advocacy group formed by the Rev. The advocacy organization released a report detailing voting access for jail inmates with Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights advocacy group formed by the Rev. “The way to avoid that is to not get arrested or get sentenced to jail.”Efforts to increase voting access for incarcerated people aren't new. A 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld the voting rights of some incarcerated people without government interference, though some lower courts have allowed more restrictive absentee voting deadlines for detainees in some states. In March, the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois became one of the first in the nation to operate as a jail polling station.
Californians to vote on racial, gender preference programs
Jesse Jackson asks a crowd for donations to the advertising fund to stop Proposition 209 during a rally in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. The U.S. Supreme Court has long outlawed racial quotas, but it has ruled that universities may use tailored programs to promote diversity. Opponents include Ward Connerly, an African American businessman and former University of California regent who pushed for the 1996 ban. They say government should never discriminate by race or gender, and the only way to stop discrimination is to end it. The numbers of Latino and Asian American residents — and voters — have grown, although likely voters are still disproportionately white.
NASCAR meets with minister pushing for racial equality
Greg Drumwright, a minister at the Citadel Church & Campus Ministries, helped organize a group of Black fans to attend the NASCAR race at Talladega and support driver Bubba Wallace. We want to see that the call for diversification and true equity in the sport extends beyond the banning of the Confederate flag, Drumwright said. The group was about two dozen strong but only one had been to a NASCAR race before. We were there to stand with Bubba but what we learned through the media coverage is that it seems as if were standing with NASCAR, Drumwright said. Theres a willingness to listen and engage that NASCAR has that I dont believe they were sincere about earlier, said Bill Lester, one of at least seven other Black NASCAR drivers before Wallace.
AP Exclusive: Black Lives Matter groups plan convention
The 2020 Black National Convention will take place Aug. 28 via a live broadcast. The first-ever Black Lives Matter convention was held in Cleveland in 2015. Convention organizers said this years event will pay tribute to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, which concluded with the introduction of a national Black agenda. Somewhat similarly, the Vision for Black Lives platform and its characterization of Israel as an apartheid state committing mass murder against Palestinian people drew allegations of anti-Semitism from a handful of Jewish groups, which had otherwise been supportive the Black Lives Matter movement. We dont just say Black lives matter and beg people to care.
Warren's outreach to black voters could help VP standing
But some black leaders say Warren's progressive politics, economic populism and specific policy proposals addressing everything from maternal mortality to the coronavirus could put her in a strong position. But some black leaders say Warren's progressive politics, economic populism and specific policy proposals addressing everything from maternal mortality to the coronavirus could put her in a strong position. She gave a memorable speech in Atlanta in November on empowering black women and combating institutional racism that some African American leaders laud as prescient. I think that she could be an interesting and compelling pick for Vice President Biden in regards to reaching out to African American voters, Garvin said. Some 61% of African American voters supported Biden, according to AP VoteCast surveys in 17 states that voted between Feb. 3 and March 17.
Biden tries to limit the damage from debate blow
Addressing an African-American advocacy group in Chicago, Biden defended his record, saying he had a lifetime commitment to civil rights. We all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange cant do justice to a lifetime commitment to civil rights, Biden said. Biden campaign officials publicly and privately downplayed the flap with Harris as an example of a trailing candidate trying to draw attention. The polling gap between Biden and Harris was immense going into the debate. And he has led in every early voting state.
feeds.reuters.comBiden tries to limit the damage from debate blow
Addressing an African-American advocacy group in Chicago, Biden defended his record, saying he had a lifetime commitment to civil rights. We all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange cant do justice to a lifetime commitment to civil rights, Biden said. Biden campaign officials publicly and privately downplayed the flap with Harris as an example of a trailing candidate trying to draw attention. The polling gap between Biden and Harris was immense going into the debate. And he has led in every early voting state.
feeds.reuters.comJesse Jackson: Sanders is running "crusade," Clinton is running "campaign"
Ahead of the South Carolina primary, democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are both trying to win over black voters. Reverend Jesse Jackson tells CBSN's Contessa Brewer that Hillary Clinton needs to sharpen her focus on the future to effectively take on the Bernie Sanders' "crusade." Watch the interview.
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