Reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Dream
This past Friday, I re-read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech.” On that hot, muggy August day, King noted with bitter irony that 100 years after the signing of...
Author: Henry Taylor
The Trump Inaugural Parade is a Political Event
In his recent op-ed in the New York Daily News, Leonard Greene argues that the Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU), an HBCU marching band, should not be criticized for accepting an invitation to perform...
The Occupation of Hayes Hall: Student Rebellions and Remaking the U.S. UniversityThe Occupation of Hayes Hall
Fifty years ago, the University at Buffalo was in the midst of a violent student rebellion, which involved pitch battles with the Buffalo police. On Sunday afternoon, March 15, a group of 45 U.B....
Ryan’s infill housing strategy is the right plan for Buffalo
A News March 17 editorial stated that “housing is an urgent need.” A key element of this need is facilitating the transformation of the East Side into a thriving community of neighborhoods by implementing an...
How We Change the Black East Side: From “The Harder We Run” to “Black Neighborhoods Matter”.
How We Change the Black East Side: A Symposium M&T Auditorium JSMBS – Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (JSMBS) Feb 26, 2024 The Harder We Run report indicated that Black Buffalo had...
Tension between the U.S. and China is growing.
People should be very concerned about the impact this might have on Chinese-Americans and all other Asian-American, Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. and Beth Kwiatek, May 2, 2023 Tension between the United States and China...
Reflections on Black-on-Black Violence
By Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. The causes of Black-on-Black violence are not really complicated. It results from under resourced and inadequate schools, limited recreational activities, substandard housing, rent and price gouging, dilapidated physical environments,...
The Long History of Residential Segregation in Buffalo
Buffalo is one of the most segregated urban centers in the United States, and the high concentration of Black people on the East Side is what attracted a racist killer to the “City of Good Neighbors”...
Demands grow for Byron Brown’s ouster from Democratic National Committee
By Robert J. McCarthy
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Demands that Mayor Byron W. Brown resign from the Democratic National Committee are growing, especially from a left-leaning group that this week heard India B. Walton vow to intensify her efforts to strengthen the party’s progressive base in Buffalo.
In her most extensive comments to date following her apparent mayoral loss to Brown on Nov. 2, Walton late Monday told a virtual meeting of the Our Revolution organization linked to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that she will continue working to strengthen the local party’s progressive base.
The City of Buffalo’s Untapped Power to Discipline Police Officers
By J. Miles Gresham, J.D.
Drawing on decisions from the New York State Court of Appeals, this brief argues that the City of Buffalo has an untapped power to discipline police officers, outside of the provisions in its contract with the police union. Both court decisions and Buffalo’s legislative history grant it this authority. However, elected officials have not pursued reforms through collective bargaining agreements, or created new disciplinary systems outside of the police contract—such as civilian oversight with disciplinary power. Taking full advantage of the legal powers that municipalities already have can help remedy some of the fundamental flaws in our criminal justice practices.