Maryland

The young adult crowd of Baltimore is stepping up in a number of arenas to assert themselves as the next generation of the city’s servant-leaders. As the stalwarts of yesterday assume new roles as mentors and guides, the 30-ish age crowd is straining to speak up and be recognized. Rev. Cortly C.D. Witherspoon is...
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At the September meeting of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Patricia Jessamy, made the case for her re-election. Touting her years of experience and multi-faceted approach for engaging crime in Baltimore, Jessamy criticized her challenger in the race, Gregg Bernstein, by saying, “he doesn’t think a prosecutor’s office should have anything...
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It’s election season in Baltimore so that means incumbents are making their rounds attempting to remind people how good life is with them in office and hopeful newbies are hitting the pavement making the case as to why they should be catapulted to political office. Admittedly, I am a bit disenchanted with electoral politics...
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“All the problems started when they took prayer out of the schools!” Perhaps you have heard people voice this statement when trying to explain the problems of public education within the Afrikan in America context. Perhaps it’s a statement that you have expressed or believe yourself. While it’s debatable that the prohibition against prayer...
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This week I’ve devoted much of my energy to a pretty spirited discussion via Facebook about Governor O’Malley’s plans to build a prison for youth in East Baltimore. The $104 million prison would be dedicated to youth being charged as adults. For many years, I’ve stood in solidarity with many others in publicly denouncing...
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When you take a nearly 90% African American student population and you willfully ignore their culture while subjecting them to a European-American educational setting you set them up for psychological enslavement. The African student population is not permitted to engage in the process of knowing themselves, the story of their people on the map...
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The history of African Americans does not begin with slavery. However, that’s what African American students are likely to believe while matriculating through many of this nation’s public schools. Their miseducation instills in them the view that they are an inferior people whose historical heritage starts in slavery. Their miseducation proliferates while at the...
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In C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence Mamiya’s classic work on the Black Church, they rightly describe the character and nature of the “Black sacred cosmos.” Much more than just casual weekend activity or flippant denominational recognition; Christianity for practicing African Americans is so interwoven into personal and social identity that it’s hard just to...
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I’d like to publicly express my prayers and condolences to Mr. Marshall “Eddie” Conway and family in light of the passing of his mother. Mr. Conway is Maryland’s longest serving political prisoner incarcerated 40 years ago while serving in Baltimore’s Black Panther Party. Activists and concerned citizens from Baltimore have been contacting the appropriate...
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Senator Mikulski, Senator Cardin, Congressman Cummings I am in Palestine/Israel right now with a delegation from Interfaith Peace Builders to learn more about the conflict here. We have been here for a week and have been meeting with people on all sides of this issue. We have visited the Gaza Strip and Palestinian refugee...
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