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In 1988, Louvenia Dorsey Bright made history as the first woman of color elected to the Vermont legislature. Her son, Bill Bright, reflects on her accomplishments and what it was like to watch her break barriers. The Friends of the Vermont State House is raising funds to commission her portrait. Then, we hear from three Black politicians in our region — State Sen. Joe Major who represents Windsor, Winooski Deputy Mayor Thomas Renner, and former Burlington City Councilmember Zoraya Hightower. They share their political inspirations, what motivated them to run for office, and the roles they see for themselves in…

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Research has documented that black Americans are systematically undertreated for pain relative to white Americans, likely due to both the over-prescription and over-use of pain medications among white patients and the under-prescription of pain medications for black patients. Indeed, research has shown that black patients are undertreated for pain not only relative to white patients, but relative to World Health Organization guidelines.New research from the University of Virginia suggests that disparities in pain management may be attributable in part to bias. In a study of medical students and residents, researchers find that a substantial number of white medical students and…

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Protests against police brutality prompted leading entertainment companies to declare their support for social justice causes and diversity. But those same companies have a poor track record when it comes to hiring and promoting Black executives into their highest levels, critics say. People of color working in Hollywood, including successful producers and directors, have expressed frustration over the chronic lack of Black and brown executives in decision-making positions.“Hollywood has to look itself in the mirror,” said Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and professor of sociology and African American studies at UCLA. “Is it part of the problem — or…

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Coffee, culture and cocktails are what you will find at Mama Koko’s inside the historic James E. Hooper House. The Black-owned business is a coffee shop by day and cocktail lounge by night.Drawing inspiration from his mother’s kitchen, co-owner and general manager Angola M. Selassie named the cafe after his mother, Dr. Kokahvah Zauditu-Selassie, who is affectionately known as Mama Koko.”She’s this force of a personality, and one day, I was chilling in her kitchen and I just kind of took a glance and I was like, ‘OIh man, all these little inspirations that are right here,” Selassie said. “I…

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Another major resort was Idlewild in Lake County, Michigan. Founded in 1912, it was popular spot for prominent black Americans like Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, founder of Chicago’s Provident Hospital; attorney Violette Neatley Anderson, the first black woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; and millionaire Madam C.J. Walker, a businesswoman in the beauty industry. Families rode horses, roller-skated and swam in lakes during the day, and at night listened to musical acts like Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin and future Touched by an Angel star Della Reese.W.E.B. Du Bois was also a fan of Idlewild. In 1921, he…

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Ransom remembered as friend, business leader, local giant Published 8:34 pm Tuesday, January 7, 2020 NATCHEZ — Friends and family members remember Francis James Ransom Sr., who died Jan. 1 at the age of 91, as an accomplished businessman who had a dry sense of humor and who loved his tractor that he affectionately called “Alice.” For Ransom’s granddaughter, Tracie Ransom who is an attorney who runs a consulting business in Kansas City, Missouri, Francis Ransom was a giant. “To be an African American in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1961, and start a business in this city that survived and was…

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Timothy Wilson Credit: Photo by Ashley Lauren Local record shop shines bright in the community Upon entering the quaint Urban Lights Music (ULM) record store on a bright and sunny day, an uplifting gospel track titled “Better Days” by Le’Andria Johnson played in the background. An aroma of fresh incense lingered throughout the atmosphere. Local entrepreneur Timothy Wilson is the owner of the store, located in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood along University Avenue in St. Paul. The business is known as the only Black-owned record store in the Twin Cities. Wilson and his friends put their money together to acquire the…

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What were lynchings?Historians broadly agree that lynchings were a method of social and racial control meant to terrorize black Americans into submission, and into an inferior racial caste position. They became widely practiced in the US south from roughly 1877, the end of post-civil war reconstruction, through 1950.A typical lynching would involve criminal accusations, often dubious, against a black American, an arrest, and the assembly of a “lynch mob” intent on subverting the normal constitutional judicial process.embedVictims would be seized and subjected to every imaginable manner of physical torment, with the torture usually ending with being hung from a tree…

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> NEW YORK CITY IS GROWING BIGGER AND BIGGER BY THE YEAR, BUT AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE PACKING UP AND MOVING OUT IN STAGGERING NUMBERS. AFTER THE CITY’S NONHISPANIC BLACK POPULATION DROPPED BY OVER 120,000 PEOPLE, WHAT’S DRIVING THIS EXODUS, AND HOW COULD IT SHAPE NEW YORK’S FUTURE? ‘METROFOCUS’ STARTS RIGHT NOW. ♪♪ > THIS IS ‘METROFOCUS,’ WITH RAFAEL PI ROMAN, JACK FORD, AND JENNA FLANAGAN. > ‘METROFOCUS’ IS MADE POSSIBLE BY — SUE AND EDGAR WACHENHEIM III, FILOMEN M. D’AGOSTINO FOUNDATION, THE PETER G. PETERSON AND JOAN GANZ COONEY FUND, BERNARD AND DENISE SCHWARTZ, BARBARA HOPE ZUCKERBERG, AND BY —…

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