WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris found her way back to the spotlight this week. The Democratic presidential candidate and California senator won praise from liberals for seemingly stumping Attorney General William Barr during a contentious hearing over special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Harris’s team quickly highlighted the exchange in a fundraising appeal and President Donald […]
Parren James Mitchell was the first Black elected official from the state of Maryland. The Baltimore native was born April 29, 1922. Mitchell served in World War II after high school and was wounded in combat, earning a Purple Heart. He returned to the states and completed a degree at Morgan State University. When he […]
BALTIMORE (AP) — “Healthy Holly” is a polite African-American girl with devoted parents and a little brother. She loves exercise. She craves fresh fruit and vegetables. And she’s now the bane of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh’s existence. Since the state prosecutor’s office began a criminal investigation into Pugh at the Maryland governor’s request earlier this […]
CHICAGO (AP) — Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot was elected Chicago mayor on Tuesday, becoming the first black woman and first openly gay person to lead the nation’s third-largest city. Lightfoot defeated Toni Preckwinkle, who served in the City Council for 19 years before becoming Cook County Board president. Lightfoot promised to rid City Hall […]
Current U.S. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver rose from humble beginnings in Texas to become the first Black mayor of Kansas City, Mo. The Alpha man and United Methodist Minister was elected to the mayor’s seat on March 26, 1991 and sworn in the following month. Cleaver was born October 26, 1944 in Waxachie, Texas, and raised […]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams says she’s willing to meet with any candidate running for president in 2020, but warned she has two ground rules. Abrams says she will meet with candidates who have a plan to address voter suppression, as well as believe Georgia will be a swing state in the […]
Mayor Vi Lyles made history in December 2017 when she took office in Charlotte, N.C. as the city’s first Black woman mayor. With her balanced leadership style, Mayor Lyles has been a breath of fresh air and inspiration to many in the Queen City. Born Viola Alexander on September 28, she was raised in Columbia, […]
ATLANTA (AP) — Long lines, last-minute polling place changes, missing or incorrect voter registration records and malfunctioning machines are among the problems Georgians faced during last year’s midterm election, according to sworn statements gathered as part of a challenge to the way the state’s elections are run. More than 200 declarations made public Wednesday are […]
CHICAGO (AP) — A political outsider who campaigned on reforming Chicago’s police department after a white officer’s fatal shooting of a black teenager said Wednesday that voters likely had the high-profile case on their minds when they advanced her to an April runoff for mayor, assuring for the first time a black woman will lead […]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Embattled Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax compared himself to Jim Crow-era lynching victims in a surprise speech Sunday, as he resists widespread calls to resign prompted by allegations of sexual assault. Fairfax strongly defended himself and lashed out at his critics from his rostrum in the state Senate as the 2019 […]
U.S. Congressman John Lewis has served in that role since 1987, and remains one of the most prominent and active members of Congress. Today is the former civil rights activist’s birthday. John Robert Lewis was born in 1940 in Troy, Ala. to sharecropper parents. He attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University in […]
Kweisi Mfume rose from a troubled childhood in Maryland to become a five-term U.S. congressman. On February 15, 1996, the Baltimore native took the reins of the NAACP because he felt he could better advance African-American civil rights from that vantage point. Born Frizzell Gray on Oct. 24, 1948, the future politician dropped out of […]
