Tag: Black people

While national Democrats debate pithy slogans, force out tired satires, and generally wonder what exactly they're supposed to be doing, Stacey Abrams has a plan. The Georgia state legislator and Democratic nominee for governor is a compelling speaker and driven public servant, Molly Ball wrote for Time in a profile published Thursday — but more than that, she's not afraid to try strategies that party bigwigs have largely ignored. Georgia is a red state veering purple; in the run-up to the 2016 election, there were several polls that breathed life into the idea that Hillary Clinton could steal the conservative state. President Trump ultimately won the Peach State by 5 points, but Abrams thinks there's a coalition to be built that could nonetheless propel her to the governorship. Abrams, by contrast, has made budget priorities the center of her campaign, pledging to rejuvenate Georgia's public education system and overhaul its safety net. The key, her team believes, is in tweaking its target voters: Ever since Bill Clinton won re-election in 1996 with a strategy of triangulation, Democrats have tried to win in Republican territory by appealing to white centrist voters. [Time] "I am coming for you, Georgia!" Abrams says, speaking to hyped up crowds. Read more about her plan to turn Georgia blue — and how she used to explain Republican lawmakers' bills back to them — at Time. Kimberly Alters

On March 27, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) honored the late Dr. Ronald Walters, who was a Black political scholar, at the Thurgood Marshall Center in the District of Columbia. “This is a special time to honor Dr. Walters,” Dr. Elsie Scott, the director of Howard’s Ronald Walters Center. “His spirit is in this room. In 1958, he led other young Blacks in a successful sit-in protest of the Dockum Drug Store in Wichita for refusing to serve African Americans and this took place two years before the more highly publicized Greensboro, N.C. sit-ins. He came to Howard University in 1971 and became chairman of the political science department before leaving it in 1996 to become the head of the Afro-American studies department at the University of Maryland, College Park. “Ronald Walters was a scholar and intellectual,” Brazile said. “Ron believed that Black people should work within the political system to change it.” Winbush said that Walters was a firm believer in Black liberation and was a proponent of reparations. “He believed Black people were due for the centuries of work put into this country without compensation.” Madison said he first met Walters at the 1972 Black Political convention that took place in Gary, Ind., and was impressed by him then. We had a private meeting where he told me how to register voters to help Jackson without getting in trouble with the NAACP.” Madison echoed the sentiments of Scott when he said that Walters would go to the Black media first with news. “When Ron wanted to say something, he went to the Black media first,” Madison said.

The Washington Post reports that President Trump is privately pushing for the U.S. military to fund the construction of his proposed border wall. Former Michigan State University Dean William Strampel, who supervised ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, was charged with four counts, including fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Trump administration on Monday. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly decided to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 10. Today on The Atlantic The Last Straw: For years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tested the limits of the West’s patience. Snapshot What We’re Reading Throwback Strategy: After recent losses in Alabama and Pennsylvania, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has unveiled a new ad campaign targeting someone familiar: Hillary Clinton. ‘My City Is Scared of Police’: The family of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man who was fatally shot by police earlier this month, is tired of having to defend Clark’s character. (The New York Times) Testing, Testing Hi readers, Elaine here. Starting next week, we’ll be testing an additional way for you to receive the Politics & Policy Daily newsletter using Amazon’s Alexa. We’ll highlight the day’s news and The Atlantic pieces making sense of it all.