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The ‘Roots’ of Slavery and its Lasting Effects

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — In 2021, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) launched a global news feature series on the history, contemporary realities, and implications of the transatlantic slave trade. Today, leadership in America is trying to erase this history. This is Part 6 in the series.

Published

6 months ago

August 31, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

In 2021, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) launched a global news feature series on the history, contemporary realities, and implications of the transatlantic slave trade. Today, leadership in America is trying to erase this history. This is Part 6 in the series.

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Kunta Kinte: What’s snow, Fiddler?

Fiddler: Never you mind, boy, never you mind. Let’s get on back to home. I got enough trouble teaching you the difference between manure and massa. ‘Course there ain’t all that much difference when you gets right down to it.

“The first time he had taken the massa to one of these ‘high-falutin’ to-dos,” as Bell called them, Kunta had been all but overwhelmed by conflicting emotions: awe, indignation, envy, contempt, fascination, revulsion—but most of all a deep loneliness and melancholy from which it took him almost a week to recover. He couldn’t believe that such incredible wealth actually existed, that people really lived that way. It took him a long time, and a great many more parties, to realize that they didn’t live that way, that it was all strangely unreal, a kind of beautiful dream the white folks were having, a lie they were telling themselves: that goodness can come from badness, that it’s possible to be civilized with one another without treating as human beings those whose blood, sweat, and mother’s milk made possible the life of privilege they led.”

―Alex Haley, “Roots: The Saga of an American Family.”

“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

The year was 1976, and America was still feeling the aftershocks of the Civil Rights Movement, the murder, some eight years earlier, of Martin Luther King Jr., and the end of the Vietnam War. King’s death, along with the murders of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Sen. Robert Kennedy – both of whom were proponents of civil rights and equal opportunity for African Americans and other minorities – were reminders to many that America still had not come close to achieving the slain leader’s “Dream.”

What’s more, in 1976, author Alex Haley released his family’s autobiography, “Roots.”

It would not only go on to become a best-selling book, but a much-watched and talked about ABC Television mini-series that re-awakened everyone to the darkness, horrors, and inhumanity of the transatlantic slave trade. “Alex Haley tapped into something very special, the idea that black Americans have been, are, and will always be compelled to understand their history,” said Dr. Kellie Jackson, an assistant professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley University.

Jackson’s research focuses on slavery, abolitionists, violence as a political discourse, historical film, and black women’s history. That “Roots” spawned an era where African Americans would give their newborn children African-themed names was no surprise and counts as an important moment in self-recognition, said Jackson, whose new book, “Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence,” examines the conditions that led some black abolitionists to believe slavery might only be abolished by violent force. “For many African Americans, giving their children names with meaning is incredibly important. What’s remarkable about ‘Roots’ is that despite the master’s attempts to rename Kunta Kinte, ‘Toby,’ the name in popular culture and memory never stuck,” Jackson said. “Kunta Kinte is only referred to by his African name. I think this is a signal of the value African Americans place on names. In the 1970s and beyond, giving black children Afrocentric names provided not only a feeling of pride, but a sense of heritage in history.”

Jackson continued:

“Naming children after great rulers such as Nzinga, Kenyatta, or Chaka still resonates with many black parents today. I know parents who have given their children the name Obama. Names that are also signposts to historical moments. What’s more powerful than your name?” Still, those names come with a price because many agree that hate is as American as Apple Pie and baseball. And, victims of such hate not only include the once enslaved African American, but America is a country where it was once illegal for all women to vote. It’s also a country that not only devastated Native Americans, but today still prevents those living on reservations from casting a ballot despite the historic amount of bloodshed and despair brought upon that group. “I believe America does owe Native Americans the chance to cast a ballot,” said Shawn Halifax, a cultural history interpretation coordinator at the MacLeod Plantation Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. “I understand that what the law is and what people who are attempting to exercise their rights are told the law is, can be two different things,” Halifax said.

America has always had a system of discrimination and prejudice against all groups who were not identified as “White Anglo-Saxon” native, said Walter Palmer, the founder of the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School in Philadelphia and current faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches urban studies, social policy, and practice. “Because historically American indigenous native’s language, culture, history, customs, and way of life has been wiped out and they have been a ward of the government, they lost their personhood,” Palmer said of Native Americans. “As American citizens, native indigenous people should be entitled to all the same privileges, rights, and entitlements as all other American citizens,” he said.

Palmer said America has continued to try to hold onto slavery, but in more legal forms like hate groups and prisons. “After the abolishment of slavery and the end of the Reconstruction period, there was the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which was a replacement of the slave patrols after this period,” Palmer said. “America always used the prison system as a means of threat, intimidation, and social control, and this was later enlarged to use Chain Gangs and Jim Crow laws to further control the African Americans,” he said.

Palmer said “Roots” was built on the legacy of prior black historians over the past two hundred years, like Fredrick Douglass, William B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, G. Carter Woodson, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. “The connection that African Americans have had to the African Diaspora goes back to the ‘Back to Africa’ movement of the early 19^th century, like the American Colonization Society, that was created in 1821,” Palmer said. For the 20th Century, “Roots” proved a watershed moment, Halifax said. “I imagine it inspired an incredible number of people to seek to learn more about their family’s past, because they knew little about it or had not been listening carefully to the stories of their elders,” Halifax said. “I think ‘Roots’ influenced some white Americans. I think the movie helped place the notion in the minds of many whites that enslaved populations were families and communities that experienced pain and suffering, that experienced joy and wonder, that were founders and builders of this country. That they were more than property,” he said.

Halifax continued:

“I think ‘Roots’ helped usher changes regarding the placement of African Americans within the context of our national history. Of course, this did not happen just because of ‘Roots.’ “In fact, I think ‘Roots’ was a crashing wave into America’s consciousness that had been pushed by a swell generated during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements that preceded it. Stories from America’s history were to be highlighted as “American History” and were decided by white male academics. “I think ‘Roots’ helped send a message. Historians needed to be more inclusive in their storytelling. It was during the 70s and 80s that more inclusive social histories were being researched and pursued in academia, and academia began to become more diversified. “By the 90s, museums and historic sites began recognizing that there is more to America’s story than just rich white guys, their families, and the wars they waged. And equally important, it was by then that people began demanding more of these stories. Unfortunately, following the crashing wave of Roots, there has been a very slow seep into the American conscious as a whole.”

“I think evidence of its importance is in the fact that its remake was released the same year as the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture,” Halifax said. “I suspect that was not an accident. We have a long way still to go. The study by the Southern Poverty Law Center on how Slavery is taught in American schools is damning.” Halifax pointed out that it took 100 years for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to open. To lesser fanfare and just before the opening of that museum on the National Mall, two other smaller museums opened within a few months of each other.

Both state that their purpose is to share the history of enslaved people and their descendants. Both are former slave labor camps, known euphemistically as plantations – the Whitney Plantation in Edgard, Louisiana, and McLeod Plantation Historic Site in Charleston, South Carolina. “As far as I know, they are the only two former plantation sites who have rejected the white dominated narrative, to look at these sites as places of memory for those held captive and enslaved and for those whose families survived,” Halifax said. “These two sites hold promise as places of healing where slavery, its legacy, and American racism can be examined. In the end, I think Roots has had an important and lasting impact.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

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PRESS ROOM: NBA Hall of Fame Nominee Terry Cummings Joins 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to Launch Victory & Values Initiative

NNPA NEWSWIRE — NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

admin

Cummings becomes an honorary member, joining other role model sports stars

NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings has officially become an honorary member of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County, marking a powerful new chapter for the 100 Black Men and youth development across the region.

Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th. The moment signified more than membership — it marked the launch of the organization’s transformative new platform, the Victory & Values Initiative.

The Victory & Values Initiative is a groundbreaking youth development program designed to empower elementary and middle school students through a dynamic blend of sports, mentorship, and STEM exposure. The initiative focuses on building health, discipline, character, leadership, and access to opportunity — creating pathways for long-term academic and personal success.

“This is about more than sports,” said Cummings during the ceremony. “It’s about using the platform of athletics to teach life lessons, create access, and build the next generation of leaders.”

The induction ceremony also featured notable guests including NASCAR’s newest Star Driver, Lavar Scott and NASCAR Director of Athletic Performance, Phil Horton, who joined Cummings for a powerful Victory & Values Town Hall discussion. The Town Hall was moderated by renowned Sports Emcee John Hollins and focused on leadership, resilience, discipline, and the importance of mentorship in shaping young lives.

A “Day at NASCAR” for 75+ Youth

Cummings wasted no time getting to work. On his first full day as an honorary member, he joined his new brothers of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to host a “Day at NASCAR,” escorting more than 75 youth to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at EchoPark Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).

The youth participants received behind-the-scenes access including: an exclusive tour of Pit Row, access to the Garage Area and exploration of the interactive Fan Zone.

The experience culminated with a surprise meet-and-greet and Q&A session with NASCAR Superstar Bubba Wallace, who shared insights on perseverance, preparation, and breaking barriers in professional sports.

The day served as a living example of the ‘Victory & Values’ Initiative in action — exposing youth to new industries, expanding their vision for the future, and connecting them directly with high- level mentors and role models.

Building Leaders Through Access and Mentorship

The 100 Black Men of DeKalb County – a chapter of the largest, national mentoring organization in the county – continues to expand its footprint with programs focused on academic excellence, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health & wellness.

The launch of ‘Victory & Values’ represents a strategic expansion of the organization’s impact

intentionally integrating athletics and STEM to engage youth at an early age while reinforcing core principles such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and perseverance.

“Our mission has always been to mentor the next generation,” said Vaughn Irons, President-Elect of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County. “With Terry Cummings joining the brotherhood, along with partners in NASCAR and professional sports, we are creating unprecedented access and exposure for our youth. Victory & Values is about turning inspiration into structured opportunity.”

By connecting elementary and middle school students to professional athletes, executives, STEM professionals, and community leaders, the initiative aims to:

Increase youth exposure to careers in sports business, engineering, and performance science
Strengthen mentorship pipelines
Promote physical wellness and mental resilience
Build character-driven leadership at an early age

Open Invitation to Youth and Families

All youth are invited to participate in the Victory & Values Initiative, along with the other countless, impactful programs offered by the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County.

Parents and guardians seeking mentorship, leadership development, academic enrichment, and transformative exposure opportunities for their children are encouraged to connect with the organization.

As NBA Legend Terry Cummings’ induction demonstrates, Victory & Values is more than a program — it is a movement designed to build champions in life, not just in sports.

For more information about the Victory & Values Initiative or to enroll a student, contact: 100 Black Men of DeKalb County at Phone at 404.241.1338, info@100bmod.org or Tee Foxx at 404.791.6525,