This Is Why Quincy Jones Belongs in US Music Education

[caption id="attachment_10452" align="alignnone" width="750"] Photo: Gai Terrell/Redferns/Getty[/caption] The Conversation - Quincy Jones, who died on Nov. 3, 2024, at the age of 91, was one of the most influential musicians in U.S. history. You might think such a notable figure would factor prominently in American music classrooms. Yet my research shows that Jones, who was Black, is rarely mentioned in mainstream U.S. music curricula. As a Black music professor, I

Government Website On Reproductive Rights Is No Longer Online

Notice: ReproductiveRights.gov Appears to Be Offline The government website ReproductiveRights.gov, which provided crucial information about abortion access, reproductive health care, and patients' rights, is currently inaccessible. The site, launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was designed to support public awareness about reproductive rights and services. It offered details on topics such as insurance coverage for birth control, prenatal care, and FDA-approved medication abortion options.

Minimum Wages Are Increasing In Nearly Half The States

  Stateline-The minimum wage will increase in nearly half the states this year even as the federal wage floor remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. In many states, the minimum wage is automatically adjusted upward as inflation rises. But voters in several states, including deeply red ones such as Alaska and Missouri, chose in November to significantly increase their minimum wages this year. Michigan will see its minimum wage jump

Stylists, Barbers Crucial to Black Health Initiative

NCHealthNews - Charlotte Sparks likes to get her hair done at Empire Beauty School. It gives students a chance to practice what they're learning, the 84-year-old Greensboro resident said. On the weekend before Christmas, the school's beauty salon also offered clients a chance to learn. The school was one of six sites in the South to take part in the Black Beauty & Barbershop Health Initiative. The program is a

How Giovanni’s Black American Consciousness Changed The World

The Guardian-"We are the culture bearers of planet Earth," Nikki Giovanni said in 1978 on American Black Journal, a Detroit TV program. Viewers watched the young poet, then just 36, establishing herself as part of Black American literary royalty in real time. She fielded a series of somewhat maudlin questions about creativity, Black identity, gender and politics with aplomb, her answers demonstrating her nascent wisdom and embrace of her role

In Duke MLK address, prosecutor in George Floyd case champions America’s ‘strength in inclusion’

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1536"] Judge Jerry Blackwell urged congregants not to give up hope amid America's time of anxiety and fear, and instead shine their lights to overcome it. (Photo: screengrab from service livestream.)[/caption] Judge Jerry Blackwell, a Minnesota district court judge who helped prosecute Derek Chauvin for the 2020 murder of George Floyd, urged attendees of Sunday's Martin Luther King Jr. service at Duke University to "retake your place

“The Most Dangerous Negro”

The Conversation - Left out of GOP debates about "the weaponization" of the federal government is the use of the FBI to spy on civil rights leaders for most of the 20th century. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the targets. As secret FBI documents became declassified, The Conversation U.S. published several articles looking at the details that emerged about King's personal life and how he was considered in

Economic Boycotts Of The Civil Rights Era Show How To Achieve A Just Society

By Kevin A. Young Professor of History, UMass The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in the U.S. based on "race, color, sex, religion, or national origin." Yet, as a historian who studies social movements and political change, I think the law's most important lesson for today's movements is not its content but rather how it was achieved. As firsthand accounts from the era make clear, the movement won

CBC Ushers In New Era With Record Membership & Firsts

NNPA - The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) celebrated a historic milestone with its largest membership ever, as 62 Black lawmakers were sworn in ahead of the 119th United States Congress. Among them were groundbreaking figures, including two Black women Senators and two Black U.S. House members from Alabama serving simultaneously for the first time. Democrats Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware made history as the first