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King cotton’s prices were on the rise, but the black sharecroppers who picked it were not benefiting. It was Sept. 30, 1919, and the harvest was about to get underway.About 100 sharecroppers met at a church in the town of Elaine, a small town in Phillips County that sits in the vast Mississippi Delta Region. Armed black guards protected the people inside. Suddenly, white men appeared outside. No one knows definitively who fired the first shot, but during an altercation bullets flew, and one white man was killed. Blacks outnumbered whites in that part of the county by at least…

DRCT’s commitment to connect with diverse populations in the state led DRCT to being the first non-profit state organization, without tribal affiliations, to be invited to the Mashantucket Pequot’s Schemitzun: Feast of Green Corn and Dance event. By fostering diverse relationships, DRCT has been able to enhance its visibility, standing and client base across Connecticut. In the 2024 fiscal year, DRCT provided outreach at 47 community events, which included forty-three (43) in-person and four (4) virtual webinars. These events reached thousands of people with disabilities, family members, caregivers, and other local community and professional partners. DRCT’s community engagement outreach efforts…

They are making a big investment to create economic mobility in the Black community. TOOMSBORO, Ga. — As voices of a growing movement around the country could not be silenced after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, two women decided to take a unique approach to bring change. They are making a big investment to create economic mobility in the Black community. “It just kind of sparked something inside us to do something,” said Renee Walters.  She was among the crowd, shouting for change. Now she’s turning her protest into building wealth in the Black community. “We’ve…

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For an entire week in September, seven Black-owned coffee shops and roasters will be featured as part of an event called Black Lou Coffee Week.  What You Need To Know Black Lou Coffee Week begins Sept. 18 Seven Black-owned coffee shops and roasters will be featured The week ends with a free documentary screening The businesses being featured are: Abol Cafe, West Lou Coffee, Old Louisville Coffee Co-op, Cafezinho, Vans Coffee Tour, Julee’s Mocha, and Brew and Sip Coffee Bar.  Seven businesses will be highlighted during the week (Black Lou Coffee Week) The week culminates in the screening of a documentary…

MONROE COUNTY, Iowa — No roads lead to Buxton anymore. A few battered foundations and quiet farmland are all that mark what was once a bustling coal community, founded around 1900 by the Consolidation Coal Company. In its heyday, Buxton saw Black men, many arriving as strikebreakers, living side by side with white immigrants hailing from places like Sweden, Slovakia and the British Isles—an arrangement that defied the strict racial divides common elsewhere in early 20th-century America.For decades, the site drifted into obscurity. “At one time this was the largest unincorporated town west of the Mississippi,” said landowner Jim Keegle,…

Louisville, Kentucky – When mass protests erupted in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 28, one of Chanelle Helm’s biggest worries was for the young people who took to the streets. Anger had been building over the March 13 police killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Louisville’s West End. Not long after Taylor’s story gained national attention, the world watched footage on May 25 of George Floyd screaming, “I can’t breathe” and crying out for his mother under the knee of a white police officer before going motionless in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was not only important for the new people, especially Louisville’s…

Give Black aims for $500K in Juneteenth donations; organizers say public urgency to support Black businesses dropping Startland News Source link

A walk down Faye Avenue in La Jolla would take you past some lush locales — the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, the Lot La Jolla for upscale movie viewing, several Instagram-worthy brunch spots. But about a block away, you’ll find something a little “funky.” Razmata’zz is a boutique clothing shop featuring a variety of unique styles, from vintage to repurposed clothing and even items designed by the owner, Artillia Marcellous. But even more unique may be that the shop is run by one of the few Black business owners in La Jolla. “It’s been kind of difficult because the…

Kira Kay: Maine health officials say they chose social services agencies “…as the fastest avenue to get funding out the door and into affected communities.” But in mid July, acknowledged concerns about “…adequacy and inclusiveness…”On July 30, Governor Janet Mills announced $1 million in new funding, specifically for community-led organizations, to “…help reduce the disproportionately large racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 in Maine.”In Lewiston, local groups didn’t wait for help from the state and created their own task force early on to serve their community, including handing out masks to local businesses to share with customers.And organizing for a…

One of the most dangerous things most of us do is pretend we don’t believe Black stories from places we don’t understand. To be Black where I grew up — a state that was 94 percent white in 2010, and 1 percent Black — was to have to make split-second decisions about what was happening and how to navigate it. I got so accustomed to being followed in stores, I actually developed a script on how to de-escalate (it started with knowing the highest-priced item in any store and asking a question about it). If the overt racism didn’t get…