As the effects of the recent Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action come to light, another opportunity for students of color is being strangled, according to data from the U.S. government, the U.N. and World Bank. According to reporting by Alexander Onukwue this week, the data from these institutions reveals that the rate of U.S. visa refusals for African students increased to more than 1 in 2 (54%) in 2022 from 44% in 2015. The data appears in a document titled; “New Report Finds Disproportion F-1 Visa Denials in Africa and the Global South.”
Street vending, a fairly visible form of entrepreneurship along Harlem’s major corridors, has been met with resistance both historically and in the present day under Mayor Eric Adams. A few months ago, Adams handed off enforcement over street vendors from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), which the NYPD assists with. The concern arose that the shift would lead to more criminalization and discrimination since the city’s street vendors, licensed or not, are primarily Black, African, or Caribbean immigrants, and Latino migrants.
The passage of the Clean Slate Act, which works to automatically seal people’s conviction records after a certain time period, earlier this year was just the tip of the iceberg for criminal justice advocates. They are determined to fight discrimination against formerly incarcerated New Yorkers on all fronts—especially housing. The Fair Chance for Housing Campaign supports a city council bill that would end housing discrimination against people with convictions in New York City. They gathered at Foley Square in Manhattan last Wed with local electeds.
The passage of the Clean Slate Act, which works to automatically seal people’s conviction records after a certain time period, earlier this year was just the tip of the iceberg for criminal justice advocates. They are determined to fight discrimination against formerly incarcerated New Yorkers on all fronts—especially housing. The Fair Chance for Housing Campaign supports a city council bill that would end housing discrimination against people with convictions in New York City. They gathered at Foley Square in Manhattan with local electeds.
On Saturday, July 29, 2023, after walking in steaming summer heat from the Barclay’s Center to his House of the Lord Church (Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn), 93-year-old Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry kicked off his tribute to the late Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael). Called “A Time of Remembrance and Time of Reunion,” the program highlighted the work and ideology of the Trinidad and Tobago-people–focused international activist. From his time with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the All African Revolutionary Party, to his “Back Power” slogan contribution and more, the man was celebrated for his unwavering commitment to the liberation of oppressed Black people the world over.
Eight of the 10 community-based organizations chosen to receive $20,000 each in gun violence prevention funding from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office currently serve Harlem. “The focus here is just on engagement for the youth,” said D.A. Alvin Bragg. Projects include “everything [from] murals to youth engaging with food justice and environmental issues… The thought is ‘let’s engage them so they don’t turn to any form of gun.’”
The 114th Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) meeting at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center called for more civic engagement and more votes in order “to fight and to win” against the current challenges to civil rights. The Saturday public mass meeting brought together national leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, among others.
On Thursday, August 10, the marvelous, legendary Ms. Melba Moore will be honored with the 2,760th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star will be unveiled at 1645 Vine Street, near the historic corner of Hollywood and Vine. Moore will receive her star in the category of Live Theatre/Live Performance.
New York and New Jersey were abuzz during Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” MetLife stadium stop. The megastar had the whole globe buzzing as fans anticipated her show on Sunday, July 30, in East Rutherford, N.J. The show brought out a huge, vibrant crowd to witness Queen Bey. Many BeyHive members took pictures and videos as they captured unforgettable moments before showtime.
Seventeen-year-old Dmitriy Popov was arrested and charged this past Friday, Aug. 4, for the hate crime murder of professional dancer O’Shae Leon Sibley in Brooklyn two weeks ago. Sibley was fatally stabbed in front of a Midwood gas station July 29 around 11 p.m. He was voguing—a competitive dance historically fashioned by queer Black and brown New Yorkers—to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” played from inside the car he and his friends were filling up before the incident. They were returning to the city from a birthday party in New Jersey.
An internet celebrity’s video game giveaway turned Manhattan’s Union Square into real-life Super Smash Bros as thousands broke into a riot last Friday, Aug. 4. Kai Cenat—who holds the record for most simultaneous subscriptions on video game streaming platform Twitch—was arrested and charged for first-degree rioting after allegedly organizing the viral event with-
out a permit, said police. “The park and streets were overrun by people,” said NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey. “It was disrupting both vehicular and pedestrian traffic … The crowd was swarmed when the influencer finally arrived [at] the park. Individuals at the park began to commit acts of violence towards the police and public.”
This year marks the 60th anniversary of major events of the Civil Rights Movement, Black people’s historic struggle for equality in the U.S. Birmingham, Alabama was one of the cities where many of these events took place, such as the Children’s Crusade, 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. arrest and famous letter. Black journalists attending the 2023 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference, held in Birmingham this year, ventured out on a tour of the city. They spoke with surviving and often unknown members of the movement who detailed their first-hand accounts with abhorrent, racist segregationists and white supremacists during the 1950s and 60s.
MTA bus and subway ride prices are going uptown by 15 cents later this month: Each swipe will cost $2.90 starting Aug. 20. The current fare is $2.75.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party (BK Dems) held its annual star-studded gala Monday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A considerable number of the city, state, and country’s prominent political figures are all Brooklyn natives, most of which are Black or brown. They showed up in their finest to support their county party. Prominent electeds in attendance included U.S. House Democratic Leader and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles “Chuck” Schumer, New York State Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.
Dr. Hazel Nell Dukes received the NAACP’s 108th Spingarn Medal and was showered with a glowing bouquet of adjectives Tuesday evening at the Boston Convention Center. “She exemplifies the spirit of the award,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, beginning the rosary of recognition Dukes received from speaker after speaker. “Dr. Dukes joins a long line of distinguished medalists, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois.” Moreover, he added, “I have had the distinct pleasure of working alongside Hazel for many years.”
New York Supreme Court Judge Lyle Frank officially blocked the city of New York from removing its roughly 250,000 municipal retirees off their current healthcare plan and onto Aetna’s privatized Medicare Advantage, which the Adams administration inked a deal on this past March. On June 5, Frank temporarily halted the switch. Last Friday on Aug. 11, he explicitly ordered “that the respondents are permanently enjoined from requiring any City retirees, and their dependents from being removed from their current health insurance plan(s) and from being required to either enroll in an Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan or seek their own health coverage.”
Mayor Eric Adams and the city crunched the numbers on the asylum seeker crisis’s future costs and determined that the city could spend “upwards of $12 billion over three fiscal years” without state and federal government aid. “Immigration is the New York story. It is the American story. But as I declared nearly a year ago, we are facing an unprecedented state of emergency due to the asylum seeker crisis,” said Adams.
Rikers Island is legally mandated to close by 2027. But before then, receivership—which temporarily wrests control over the embattled jail from the city—is now on the table as federal judge Laura Taylor Swain opened the door to arguments for the move this past Thursday, Aug. 10.
Former President Donald Trump’s fourth indictment is 98 pages and includes 18 co-defendants. And the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) charge smears Trump as though he was the leader of a gang of criminals. The new 13 charges were delivered Monday in Georgia by a grand jury that wasted no time voting on the indictment, outlining the efforts Trump and his defendants waged to keep him in power and overturn the victorious election results for President Joe Biden. As a whole, Trump faces a combined 91 counts across the cases, and there may be more to come. Early on, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the plan to indict Trump, and it arrived with sweeping implications and difficulties for him.
On Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, the city of Paterson saw the ceremonial renaming of Matlock Street as “Chairman John Currie Way.” Paterson City Council members had approved the resolution for the street renaming and took part in the ceremony, along with various government officials and Mayor Andre Sayegh. “I’m sure we all agree that as far as his leadership is concerned, if we were to give him a grade, he’d get an A plus,” Mayor Sayegh told those attending the ceremony. “Why would he get an A plus? Well, he’s a chairman that is results oriented. And a lot of the results, his record of results, speak for him. He gets an A plus for driving diversity: to make sure that the state, county, and the government reflect the people that it serves.”
The 50th anniversary of hip hop was celebrated in grand style with events going on all over New York City, where Kool DJ Herc started everything in the Bronx. On August 9, Run-DMC’s Daryl Mc-Daniels and DJ Scratch attended an event at a pop-up hosted by Adidas Originals and Run-DMC. Then, native New Yorkers Ja Rule, Ashanti, and Jadakiss climbed to the top of the Empire State Building for a lighting ceremony in honor of hip hop’s golden anniversary hosted by Universal Music Group this past Thursday. On August 11, Fat Joe, Remy Ma and Busta Rhymes held a concert in Central Park on “Good Morning America” and later that night, participated in an all-star Hip Hop 50th live concert at Yankee Stadium which featured Run-DMC, Nas, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim, Ice Cube and DJ Kool Herc, the man who gave birth to hip hop.
A few days prior to the annual West Indian Day Parade, an unforgettable night celebrating Caribbean music’s rich history spanning many generations will emanate from Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on August 31.
New York City subway and bus fares were raised by 15 cents, from $2.75 to $2.90, this weekend and prices for drivers could also go up by April 2024 when the state implements congestion pricing and tolls in midtown and lower Manhattan, a move that local city officials are understandably wary of. Majority Whip Selvena N. Brooks-Powers, who chairs the City Council’s Transportation Committee, held an oversight hearing with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on August 17 to discuss how the city can prevent unintended hardships for vulnerable communities whose members might live in transit deserts and ensure an equitable rollout of congestion pricing.
Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced their combined $200 million investment into the redevelopment for the historic and long-underutilized Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx. The push to reimagine the space has been a community-led project for decades that lacked funding. The Kingsbridge Armory first opened back in 1917 for military use until 1994. The city has owned the landmarked building since 1996. It has recently been used as a temporary food distribution center during the COVID-19 pandemic and as storage for victims of the Twin Park North fire.
Senator Cordell Cleare kicked off her second annual Senior Day during Harlem Week, an event she initiated more than 20 years ago. The entertaining event stands as a testament to improving the quality of life for seniors and fostering community connections while tackling one of the challenges the city’s seniors face: staying cool.
A wrongful death in the Black and brown community is a tragedy that creates a ripple effect, affecting loved ones and the community at large. The Grieving Families Act would reform New York’s 200-year-old discriminatory tort laws to allow financial compensation for emotional grief and anguish in wrongful death cases.
The North New Jersey Black Caucus for Social Justice will hold its first annual memorial ser-
vice for Bernard Placide Jr. Placide Jr. is the 22-year-old who was killed on Sept. 3, 2022, by members of the Englewood, New Jersey police department. The event will feature Rev. Al Sharpton as its keynote speaker and will honor three civil rights leaders: Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Global Ministries; Larry Hamm, People’s Organization for Progress; and Min. Baba Zayid, Newark Communities for Accountable Policing.
In its most recent session, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (NYC LPC) met to consider landmarking Joseph Rodman Drake Park’s burial ground for enslaved Africans. The park is in Hunts Point, Bronx. “We are pleased with the news that the NYC LPC is considering the Bronx’s own Joseph Drake Park & Enslaved African Burial Ground for designation as a landmark,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson in a statement. “From the moment a group of students and administrators at P.S. 48 pieced together a tangible link between the park and our nation’s colonial history in the discovery of an enslaved African burial ground in 2013, it brought to life a critical piece of our past that should never be forgotten.”
Donny Ubiera is the seventh person held on Rikers Island to die this year and the eighth to die in or immediately after NYC Department of Corrections (DOC) custody. The 33-year-old was found unresponsive in his cell at the George R. Vierno Center (GRVC) jail this past Tuesday, Aug. 22. He entered DOC custody this past March, and his death is currently under investigation as of press time, according to a department spokesperson. The Legal Aid Society said Ubiera was a client of the practice and called for a “sweeping investigation” that would be fully transparent for the deceased’s next of kin.
The grassroots community came out this past Sunday afternoon to witness the unveiling of the Black Panther Way Street co-naming sign on the northwest corner of 122nd St. and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. It’s near where their Harlem headquarters were once located, at 2026 Seventh Ave., and Brother Shep said it serves as a symbol of Black self-determination and resistance against systematic colonialism and oppression dating back to the Black Power era. Several dozen veteran activists were present.
TMZ reports that Rihanna and Harlem native A$AP Rocky are parents to a second child. Sources tell the outlet that the billionairess entertainer/businesswoman gave birth to another baby boy on August 3 in Los Angeles, California. Like his older brother RZA, the baby’s name starts with an “R,” just like his parents’ names, although the full name is unknown …In other baby news, Serena Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, welcomed their second baby girl, Adira River Ohanian.
Hollywood’s unionized actors and writers rallied outside the Manhattan offices of Amazon and HBO on Tuesday, Aug. 22, with a few hundred of their unionized friends, in an effort to show their labor muscle. Picketing members of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGA) completely covered two long blocks—between 31st and 33rd Streets on 10th Avenue—with posters, placards, horn-honking trucks, whistles, megaphones, drums, and enthusiasm. A serious and determined group, they chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Corporate greed has got to go” and “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? Union power!” and marched while calling for attention to their ongoing strike.
The descendants of a British family that had owned, demeaned, and brutalized hundreds of enslaved plantation workers in the Caribbean Community headquarter nation of Guyana centuries ago, are headed to the country this week to formally apologize for the sins of their fore parents and pay an undisclosed sum in reparations to fund research into the impact of slavery, the University of Guyana has said in a statement. Planter John Gladstone, described by today’s generation of Gladstone descendants as a vile and greedy man, had owned more than 2,500 slaves in Jamaica and Guyana and was considered one of the most brutal plantation owners in the Caribbean. He owned several coffee, sugar, and other estates along Guyana’s east coast and in the western Essequibo Region in the early to mid-1800s. Profits from unpaid slave labor have been primarily attributed to the vast wealth of Scottish-born Gladstone, whose son became a four-time British prime minister in the colonial era.