Community
SBLC Celebrates 10th Annual Emancipation Proclamation Celebration
By Ralph White
The Stockton Black Leadership Council announces its 10th Annual Emancipation Proclamation Celebration on January 1st to celebrate 151 years of freedom from slavery in America.
The parade will begin at 12 p.m. at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds and God’s Appreciation Dinner will begin at 5 p.m. at Ralph Lee White’s residence, 2201 East Eighth Street. The public is invited and the event is free of charge.
The parade will celebrate Blacks being freed from slavery on January 1, 1863. This date marks the beginning of Black people’s freedom in America. One thing Black people must remember to do is thank God for what He has done for us as a race and teach our children as the Hebrews do when they celebrate Passover all over the world.
The Hebrews thank God for helping them exit Egypt and teach their children and people to be thankful for all God has done for them. In return, God has made them the most successful people in the world because they are the only people who have shown thanks to God for freeing them from 439 years of being enslaved.
We, as Black people in America must wake our people up- every minister must preach during the month of December about January 1st and what God has done for us as a people. God spoke to Abraham Lincoln, then the President, and told him to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
About 99.9% of the Black People in America do not know the beginning date of their freedom in America. We must first look at the Bible in Exodus Chapter 40 where God told Moses to set up his tabernacle on the first day of the first month, just as God told Abraham they would be enslaved for 400 years, and they were, 439 years.
Blacks were enslaved in America for over 200 years. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go.” God told a man with a biblical name, Abraham Lincoln, who with a stroke of the pen freed Black people from slavery in America. That was the first and the last time on January 1, 1863, that the White House was open for official business. So one must examine in 150 years, a short period of time, that it is an insult to God to not show him some love and respect at least on the day he freed 3.5 million Black people in America.
This is why the Stockton Black Leadership Council for the last ten years has celebrated January 1st. It is time that we as Black people stop and pause for one day out of the year and thank God collectively for what he has done for us 150 years ago.
Every month we recognize some kind of day – Independence Day, Passover, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc. What day have we set aside to thank God for enabling us as Black people? January 1st is our opportunity to give thanks for our freedom.
#NNPA BlackPress
Fighting to Keep Blackness
BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

By April Ryan
As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum
Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.
Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025

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#NNPA BlackPress
Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

By Lauren Burke
In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.
On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.
All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.
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