By Sean Kirst
Read the full article from Buffalo News here.
“‘When you look at George, the breadth of his life, what he was able to accomplish, how resilient he was, you have to think of what a blessing he was to all of us and what a role model he should be for our children,’ said Barbara Seals Nevergold, a community historian and former president of the Board of Education.”
By Bert Gambini
Read the full article from the UB News Center here.
“Foster’s book tells a story absent from other histories about how the expanding railroad industry of the 19th century and the emergence of luxury sleeping cars required employees to staff them. The sleeping cars were rolling full-service accommodations that allowed riders to stay on the train rather than in a hotel during stopovers. The passengers, unwilling to learn the porters’ names, called anyone working in that capacity “George.””
By Sarah Mizes-Tan
Read the full article from CapRadio here.
“[Cofer] believes the key to getting higher vaccine uptake in the Black community is going to rest on organizations going through trusted community leaders first. Cofer, an African American woman, says she’s still researching what’s been released by Pfizer and Moderna, and the potential for any side effects on African Americans. Some early studies have shown there is a chance the vaccine might be slightly less effective for people of Asian or Black ancestry.”
By Bertha Coombs
Read the full article from CNBC here.
“Seven out of 10 African Americans know someone who’s been hospitalized or died from Covid, according to a Pew Research poll conducted last month. Yet vaccine skepticism runs high. Only 42% of Blacks surveyed say they plan to be vaccinated, compared with more than 60% for Americans overall.”
By John Gramlich and Cary Funk
Read the full article from the Pew Research Center here.
“The disparity is particularly wide in some states. In Kansas and Wisconsin, black people account for 6% of each state’s population but 29% and 26% of deaths, respectively – the biggest proportional disparities out of the states for which demographic data on coronavirus deaths is available…Meanwhile, a little over half of black adults (54%) say they would definitely or probably get a coronavirus vaccine if one were available today, while 44% say they would not.”
By Robin D. G. Kelley
Read the full article from Boston Review here.
“We keep telling ourselves that Trump was elected as a backlash to a Black president, but really he was elected as a backlash to a Black movement. President Obama presided during the killing of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland—ad infinitum. It was the mass rebellion against the lawlessness of the state—in Ferguson, in Baltimore, in Chicago, in Dallas, in Baton Rouge, in New York, in Los Angeles, and elsewhere—that prompted Trumpian backlash.”
Story by Toni Griffin, Ariella Cohen, and David Maddox
Read the essays on NextCity.org here.
“Over the past decade, there have been numerous conversations about the “livable city,” the “green city,” the “sustainable city” and, most recently, the “resilient city.” At the same time, today’s headlines—from Ferguson to Baltimore, Paris to Johannesburg—resound with the need for frank dialogue about the structures and processes that affect the quality of life and livelihoods of urban residents. Issues of equity, inclusion, race, participation, access and ownership remain unresolved in many communities around the world, even as we begin to address the challenges of affordability, climate change adaptation and resilience. The persistence of injustice in the world’s cities—dramatic inequality, unequal environmental burdens and risks, and uneven access to opportunity—demands a continued and reinvigorated search for ideas and solutions.”
By Rachelle Hampton
Read the full article from Slate here.
“Getting cast as the political spokesman for all Black people requires exactly two qualifications: be Black and have an audience that is primarily Black. Whether or not your audience views you as a serious political thinker is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter whether your opinions are actually widely held in the community you claim to represent. For the politicians looking for campaign pit stops and the media outlets looking for sound bites, the only thing that really matters is a young Black audience.”
By Grace Lazzara
Read the full article from UBNow here.
“What, then, does drive disparities? ‘While we live in a country together, we experience that country in very different ways,’ LaVeist said. He displayed an infographic of the subway system in Washington, D.C., that showed that the particular subway lines people took effectively predicted their life expectancy because they correlate to ‘where people live.’ He also cited a study of Baltimore that tallied corner stores selling not much more than cigarettes and bottles of 40-oz. malt liquors, which LaVeist called ‘elixirs for the ills of poverty.’ Such stores existed almost exclusively in highly segregated, predominantly Black, low-income communities.”
From Partnership for the Public Good
Read the full report here.
“In New York State, a majority of state lawmakers support passage of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (S.1623/A.2500), to restrict the use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails in line with international human rights standards. This report provides a fiscal analysis of the implementation of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, estimating that implementing the HALT Act can save New York State and local governments an estimated $132 million dollars annually, or $1.3 billion dollars over 10 years.”