It has been 100 years and we are only now, as a country, beginning to learn the truth of one of the most horrific events of racial violence in America's history, the Tulsa Massacre.

Minnesota ranks high in a lot of areas.  Education, health, and homeownership are examples. But access to these things hasn’t been equitable.

I am ignorant of absolute truth.  But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward.  Kahlil Gibran

I, too, sing America.  I am the darker brother.  They send me to eat in the kitchen   when company comes.  But I laugh.  And eat well.  And grow strong.  Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table when company comes.  Nobody’ll dare say to me, eat in the kitchen then.  Besides, they’ll see how beautiful…

Stairstep Foundation CEO Alfred Babington-Johnson and Conversations with Al McFarlane moderator, Al McFarlane in April co-hosted a virtual Town Hall meeting to introduce an initiative to support Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) efforts to broaden engagement around the project f…

Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place.  Walter E. Williams 

6-year-old Aniya Allen death was confirmed to Wednesday afternoon outside Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis.

Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott today said he was pleased that Attorney General Keith Ellison will lead the prosecution in the Daunte Wright case.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that he has accepted a request to lead the prosecution against former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter, who is currently charged with second-degree manslaughter in the April 11, 2021 Brooklyn Center death of Daunte Wright. The…

Sen. Ted Cruz is a shameless liar. And he isn’t even a very good one. Witness his latest dishonest defense of Georgia’s new voter suppression law. Cruz published a column in the Wall Street Journal attacking business leaders who have criticized the anti-voting law. He claimed that critics we…

As Ahmaud Arbery jogged on a public street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, Travis and Gregory McMichael armed themselves with firearms.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and a voting and ethics bill passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, but neither stands a chance in the evenly divided Senate.

Officials in Detroit have unveiled the 102nd United States Colored Troop Memorial Highway, honoring the heroic African American Infantry Regiment formed during the Civil War in 1863.

MN Black Theatre Circle, in partnership with the Guthrie Theater, presents Blackness Is…, a theater-inspired arts festival streaming May 21-23, 2021, that celebrates Black voices and Black liberation. The virtual festival showcases theater, dance, music, poetry and spoken word, as well as wo…

Part 3 in 4 part series

Governor Tim Walz Thursday announced a three-step timeline to end nearly all state COVID-19 restrictions by May 28, and end the statewide masking requirement once 70% of Minnesotans age 16 years and older get their vaccine, or by July 1. The announcement comes as more than 2.6 million Minnes…

Facebook’s quasi-independent Oversight Board on May 5, 2021, upheld the company’s suspension of former President Donald Trump from the platform and Instagram. The decision came four months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Trump “indefinitely” for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot…

The House Judiciary Committee voted on April 14, 2021, to recommend the creation of a commission to study the possibility of paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

On April 23, The New York Post published and then edited a story that claimed that a children’s book by Vice President Kamala Harris was given out to migrant children at the Mexican border as part of a “welcome kit” upon entering the U.S.

With Democrats holding the majority in Congress and with President Joe Biden leading our country, it is time to fast track passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Passing the DREAM Act would put the small group law-abiding young adults brought to the U…

Part 2 in a series

Matter: verb [no object] 1 (usually in the negative or in questions) be of importance; have significance…what did it matter to them?

The Minnesota House of representatives passed legislation Tuesday that would make $7.8 million in funding available to support law enforcement agencies responding to potential civil unrest.

Part 1 of a series 

Deadly interactions with police after traffic stops, such as the one that led to the death of Daunte Wright earlier this month, have some lawmakers wondering how to make them safer.

This verdict reflects a little-known truth about Minneapolis: As the city and metro region have become Blacker and more diverse, police violence against Black people has intensified. This is not to suggest that things have always been good for Black Minneapolis residents. Indeed, Minneapolis…

Like other high-profile police killings of African Americans, the murder of George Floyd revealed a lot about police culture – and how it makes interactions with communities of color fraught.

The guilty verdicts in the Chauvin trial are extraordinary, if unsurprising, because past incidents of police lethal use of force against unarmed civilians, particularly Black civilians, have generally not resulted in criminal convictions.

Derek Chauvin’s criminal trial is over, but the work to ensure that no one endures a tragic death like George Floyd’s is just getting started.

In the first six months of 2020, while the world was reeling from an introduction to COVID 19, headlines recorded that the ongoing “pandemic” of violence perpetrated against African Americans continued.   Say the names: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks.

Professor Burnele Venable Powell, Dean Emeritus of University of South Caroline Law School, said “as we look at this trial, we can see it as part of a roll out of history. We can think about and we can ask ourselves to imagine what this trial would have been like 20 years ago, 10 years ago. …

(8pm Tuesday, April 20, 2021) A jury today found Derek Chauvin guilty on each of 2 counts of murder and one count of manslaughter in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. Sentencing will be in late June, Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill said after reading the jury verdict. 

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced this morning the Department of Justice will open an investigation in the Minneapolis Police Department.

Another Black man has died at the hands of the police, 10 months after and 12 miles away from the murder of George Floyd.

Whether it is being among the most highly infected with COVID19, being forced out of jobs at an alarming rate due to lack of childcare and support, or making up a large portion of the essential workers who put themselves at risk to keep the country going, women of color continue to bear the …

Officer Kim Potter, shot and killed Daunte Wright, 20, during a traffic stop last Sunday in Brooklyn Center. Potter was arrested Wednesday by Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and charged with 2nd degree manslaughter in the shooting death. If convicted on this charge, she could ser…

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly .” ~Zen proverb

Some call it “a solution looking for a problem” when referring to the wave of election reform initiatives sprouting up in at least 43 states. Critics of the reform initiatives cite that the wave of GOP sponsored bills are in large part a reaction to the “big lie” perpetrated by the Trump adm…

On the 10th anniversary of its Internet Essentials program, Comcast announced it would invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to help further close the digital divide and give even more low-income Americans the tools and resources they need to succeed in an increasingly digital world. The …

Remember these names: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Tiffany Cunningham, and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi.  These are President Joseph Biden’s first three nominations for the federal Court of Appeals.

To reduce housing displacement, landlords could be barred from immediately filing evictions for late rent, and to reduce barriers to finding housing, renters could have an easier time getting past evictions removed from their records.

The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is underway in Minneapolis, Minnesota.