Remembering and Reaffirming Its Liberational Origins By Dr. Maulana Karenga As December opens up expanded conversations and questions about the origins and practice of Kwanzaa in anticipation of its 55th anniversary celebrations by millions of African peoples around the world, it is good to remember and reaffirm its liberational origins in struggle. For indeed, Kwanzaa ...

By Dianne Anderson Eleven-year-old Elysian Sanders doesn’t have to think twice about the impact of the 100 Black Men of Long Beach on his personal growth and ethical business prospects. “The best part of this program is being in the program,” he said. “I think it’s a big part is they encourage us to explore ...

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media The California Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP has informed the state’s Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) that it is “prepared to take legal action” should the current iteration of maps stay the way they are currently drafted. Rick Callender, president of the California-Hawaii NAACP, said the Assembly and ...

By Dianne Anderson Not everybody is fit to sit on all city commissions or boards, but almost anybody can do a little something to change their community, like showing up to voice concerns and keeping a closer watch on what the movers and shakes are up to lately. Some could attend city council meetings, or ...

By Dianne Anderson Coming out of the Thanksgiving feast, the Long Beach Black Infant Health Program and partners are teaming up to make sure local moms can make it through the holidays with a little less stress. For Gwendolyn Manning, there is no time to rest from now until Christmas. BIH moms receive food staples, ...

By Dianne Anderson No one really understood HIV in the early days of the virus, how it acted. Medical professionals couldn’t even predict how the bodies were going to be after death. As a mortician, Margo Malone recalls how they treated HIV much the same way as with the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Back then, ...

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media To advance housing access, affordability, and equity, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced earlier this month the creation of a Housing Strike Force. The team, housed within the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) has been tasked with enforcing California housing laws that cities across the state have ...

COMMENTARY By Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH Special to California Black Media Partners Our state experienced the most devastating point of the pandemic last winter. More than 21,000 Californians were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the last week of December, and we lost 18,518 mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers to this deadly virus in January. The ...

By Dianne Anderson In her four years working with foster youth, CASA volunteer Julie Spacht reflects on one of the main things for people to know about the foster system is that the kids usually are in the system for a reason – and that reason is traumatic. In the best of circumstances, she said ...

By Antonio Ray Harvey California Black Media Last month, Lawrence Lucas, founder of the United States Department of Agriculture Coalition of Minority Employees (USDA-CME), testified before the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. Lucas said racism is the prime reason there are just a little over 400 Black farmers ...