Category : Latest Current Topics

Brick by brick, old Parkland is slowly coming down

Hospital had served Dallas County residents for more than 60 years DALLAS – It is just before dawn when Eric Velasquez reports for demolition duty at the old Parkland Memorial Hospital. As a member of the Ecosystems crew charged with monitoring the a...

Rural Jails Turn to Health Workers to Help the Newly Released Succeed

By Lillian Mongeau Hughes Originally appeared in KFF Health News MANTI, Utah — Garrett Clark estimates he has spent about six years in the Sanpete County Jail, a plain concrete building perched on a dusty hill just outside this small, rural t...

Biden To Deliver Commencement Speech At Morehouse College

Photo: Getty Images President Joe Biden is set to deliver a commencement address at Morehouse College next month. On Monday (April 22), the White House confirmed that Biden will speak at Morehouse College’s commencement, which is scheduled fo...

Texas politics leave transgender foster youth isolated — during and after life in state care

It was near midnight just a couple days before Thanksgiving 2020 when 17-year-old Kayden Asher arrived at yet another temporary home during his yearslong tumble through Texas’ chaotic foster care system.His caseworker had given him just two hours to...

J. Pharoah Doss: Victim response to UN’s 30th commemoration of Rwanda genocide

Day of Remembrance of Rwandan Genocide Victims (Adobe Stock Illustration) & The Rwandan genocide stunned the entire world in 1994. The Hutu majority systematically exterminated around 800,000 of the minority Tutsis in 100 days. Noam Schimmel, a...

United Negro College Fund and FM Omni-Channel Radio Station Partner To Hold First Radio-Thon, April 25

The United Negro College Fund was founded on April 25, 1944.& In celebration of the 80th anniversary this year, the First UNCF Omni-Channel Radio-Thon, a 24-hour event to raise money for college scholarships, will be held Thursday, April 25, at...

City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin Launches New Comprehensive Financial Education Program

City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin recently announced that the City Treasurer’s Office has teamed up with Chase Bank, the Chicago Urban League, and TransUnion to create the Money Matters Institute (MMI), a new comprehensive financial education pro...

Black and Unhoused in Chicago: How Housing Segregation Fueled a Homegrown Crisis

Almost seven out of 10 homeless persons in the city of Chicago are Black. They are either living under someone else’s roof, temporarily staying at a shelter or living on the streets.& However, experts say that it is no coincidence that, de...

Almost seven out of 10 homeless persons in the city of Chicago are Black

Almost seven out of 10 homeless persons in the city of Chicago are Black. They are either living under someone else’s roof, temporarily staying at a shelter or living on the streets.However, experts say that it is no coincidence that, despite compris...

Legacy of Inequitable Housing Access: How a Black Family’s Story Echoes Today’s Fight

A Chicago Defender article from 1946 that chronicles the Hemmons family becoming unhoused. This is Part Three of the Chicago Defender’s series Black and Unhoused: How Segregation Fueled a Homegrown Crisis, which is part of the “Healing Illinois” init...

The Toughest Issue for Teachers Is Even Tougher For Students

By Joseph Williams Originally appeared in Word in Black It’s considered a truism in most Black communities: education is the key to climbing the ladder from poverty into the middle class. But a new survey of teachers has found that teaching ki...

Chicago’s Enduring Legacy of the Black and Unhoused

This is Part Two of the Chicago Defender’s series Black and Unhoused: How Segregation Fueled a Homegrown Crisis, which is part of the “Healing Illinois” initiative.& Demetrius France, 55, is just 15 credits shy of earning his Associate’s d...

Are You Raising One of the Next Generation of Hoodlums: TIPS FOR RAISING A WELL-ROUNDED BOY

Dr. Joyce Willard Teal It is important that as your son grows and begins to mature, the also begins to develop a well-rounded personality. But becoming well-rounded is not something that just happens because of your desire to have it happen. There ar...

Preserved by Purpose – Good Seeds in Good Soil

Over 20 years ago, I received a plant as a gift from a dear friend. Even though periodically I had to prune the dead leaves, I was surprised that I was able to keep the plant alive for about 10 years. However, when I saw that the leaves were more...

Black and Unhoused: How Black Chicago’s Fight for Affordable Housing Echoes Through Generations

This collage details how Black segregation from the past has fueled the homegrown crises of Black homelessness and affordable housing scarcity (Credit: Christa Carter-Williams). This is Part One of the Chicago Defender’s series Black and Unhous...