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Rep. Barbara Lee says that would be Shirley Chisholm’s message to Kamala Harris and Democrats today

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Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm thegrio.com

No one in Congress fought harder to maintain Shirley Chisholm’s legacy than U.S. Republican Barbara Lee. The 78-year-old California lawmaker considered the late Chisholm a mentor and friend.

Although she made history as the primary black woman elected to Congress in 1968 and the primary black American and black woman to run for US president in 1972, it would be years before the pioneering profession of the “unbought and disempowered” congresswoman was recognized within the Capitol.

Determined to establish Chisholm as the large of American politics that she is, Congresswoman Lee has undertaken a variety of efforts to honor her, including sponsoring a House resolution commemorating her contributions and achievements, establishing a tribute U.S. postage stamp, and hanging Chisholm’s portrait on the partitions of Congress. Lee recently led fellow Democrats to introduce laws that would posthumously award Shirley Chisholm the Congressional Gold Medal.

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Barbara Lee, whose relationship with Chisholm was portrayed within the 2024 Netflix biopic “Shirley,” met the New York lawmaker as president of the Black Student Union at Mills College. Lee invited Chisholm to speak on campus and later inspired him to work on her presidential campaign, eventually heading the campaign’s operations in northern California.

Barbara Lee, theGrio.com
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 26: Representative Barbara Lee of California poses for a portrait on the Capitol in Washington, DC, October 26, 2023. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“(I was) amazed, mesmerized and truly shocked that there was a presidential candidate who not only looked like me but could address issues that no one else was talking about,” Lee reflected. “Shirley Chisholm spoke out on this issue and represented the values ​​that I have always held, but I never realized that any elected official could be out there, elected, speaking truth to power and not giving up.”

Although Chisholm is more well known today, Lee said the general public may not understand how progressive she was during her time in office.

“Shirley Chisholm continues to believe that progress is the foundation of her development. She was a black woman, but she worked with everyone. And that’s why she was so effective as a legislator,” Lee maintained. “She was who she was, and she knew how to negotiate, and she knew how to move the ball forward politically and in terms of political priorities without giving in to anyone else’s point of view. And this is a very important skill.”

After Kamala Harris’s devastating defeat within the 2024 presidential election, today’s Democrats could learn rather a lot from Chisholm, said Lee, herself a progressive luminary in Congress who, within the spirit of Chisholm, especially railed against the Vietnam War the one voice against the war in Afghanistan in 2001

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“She said, don’t let this right-wing MAGA win… divide us and conquer us because we have to fight for equality (and) freedom,” said Lee, who urged Democrats to “fight and resist” within the spirit of Chisholm. “Don’t hand over. These headwinds will proceed until we break through.

A portrait of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968. In 1972, she became the first woman and first black person from a major party to run for president.
American politician, educator and creator Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005), member of the US House of Representatives from New York’s twelfth district, is cheered by the group during her speech on US Women’s Rights Day, April 4, 1981 (Photo: Nancy Shia/ Archive photos/Getty Images)

She continued: “Focus on lifting people out of poverty, fighting for the middle class and making sure that racial equity, gender equity and equity are at the heart of our agenda.”

Lee believes Chisholm would be especially keen on Harris and her historic presidential campaign to change into America’s first woman, first Black woman and first South Asian president.

“Shirley Chisholm would applaud her… even though our vice president didn’t win, she opened the door for another black woman, another woman of color to run,” Lee said. “I feel Shirley would say, ‘Keep fighting… Kamala grabbed the baton and kept running.’

Missed a black girl's day off? On December 2, celebrate National Black Women's Day of Rest

Lee added, “I think Shirley is content, happy, smiling and saying, keep it up, because sooner or later we’re going to have a woman of color, specifically a black woman, as our president.”

While lots of Kamala Harris’s supporters, especially Black women, feel disheartened and weary following Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump, Congresswoman Lee said Shirley Chisholm would not want “any of us to give up.”

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“She said, ‘Take a break,’” Lee said. “Shirley has been very clear about taking care of ourselves, being healthy and doing whatever we need to do to strengthen ourselves to keep it that way.”

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Politics and Current

Former US representative Charles Rangel from New York dies at 94

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Former US representative Charles Rangel from New York, a sincere, gravel Democrat Harlem, who spent almost five many years at the Capitol and was a member of the Black Congress Club, he died on Monday at the age of 94.

His family confirmed death in a press release presented by City College of New York, spokesman Michelle Stent. Stent died in a hospital in New York.

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Veteran of the Korean War, defeated the legendary policy of Harlem Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to begin his congress profession. Over the subsequent 40 years, he became the legend-part of the founding father of the Black Club Congress, dean of the Congress Delegation in New York, and in 2007 the primary African American chaired the powerful committee and environment.

He left this committee among the many cloud of ethics, and the Chamber assessed him in 2010. But he was chosen. Later he served in Congress until 2017, when he decided to not search for re -election.

File – Kongresmen Charles Rangel leaves the rally for airport employees at Laguardia airport within the Queens district in New York, June 26, 2014 (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Rangel was considered one of 4 gangs – African -American political figures that had great power in New York and state policy, along with David Dinkins, the primary black mayor in New York; Percy Sutton, who was the president of Manhattan Borough, and Basil Paterson, deputy mayor and secretary of New York.

Few can ignore rangel after hearing a conversation. His characteristic voice in Żwirie and the tart humorousness were an unforgettable mix.

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This voice – one of the vital liberal at home – was the loudest in opposition to the war in Iraq, which he called the “death tax” to poor people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to finish the war, offering a bill for restarting the military service project. Republicans called on his bluff and brought a voting law, and even Rangel voted against him.

A yr later, Rangel’s fight for war became bitterly personal with the then President Dick Cheney.

The Congress Black Club is ready to take Trump and Republicans, says the presumed representative of Yvette Clarke

Rangel said that Cheney, who has heart problems, might be too sick to do his job.

“I would like to believe that he is sick, not just mean and bad,” said Rangel. After a number of such verbal stabs, Cheney broke off, saying that Rangel “lost”.

Harlem’s charismatic legislator rarely withdrew from the fight after he first entered the home in 1971 as a type of dragon conqueror, who rejected Powell in a democratic basic congress in 1970. In the Extravagant era of the older Powell, town’s political icon for the primary time elected to the Chamber in 1944.

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Rangel became the leader of the Central Committee for Tax Writing the Chamber, which has jurisdiction over programs, including social insurance and Medicare, after the 2006 election, when Democrats ended 12 years of republican control of the Chamber. But in 2010, the Committee on the Ethics of the Chamber carried out a hearing regarding 13 cases of alleged improper financial proceedings and collecting funds regarding problems related to financial disclosures and using congress resources.

File-W July 26, 1974 photo from the file, representatives of Charles Rangel, Dn.y. and Barbara Jordan, d-tex. On the left, look at a duplicate of the structure throughout the debate of the court committee on Impeachment articles for President Richard Nixon in Washington (AP Photo/File)

He was convicted of 11 violations of ethics. The house stated that he didn’t pay taxes at the vacation villa, made the misleading types of disclosure of monetary information and incorrectly asked for donations for the university center from a company with business before its committee.

The Chamber was in step with the advice of the Ethics Committee to be assessed, probably the most serious penalty of not expulsion.

Rangel sorted his voters, sponsoring the reinforcement zones with tax concessions for corporations transferring economically depressed and developers of low -income apartments.

“I have always been involved in the fight for a little guy,” said Rangel in 2012, when he announced that he was running for re -election.

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During the Korean war he won a purple heart and a brown star. He all the time said that he measured his days, even restless across the ethics scandal, in comparison with the time in 1950, when he survived the wounded because other soldiers didn’t do it.

He became the title of his autobiography: “Since then I haven’t had a bad day.”

The abandonment of highschool went to check at Gi Bill, winning the scientific degrees from New York University and St. John’s University Law School.

The emotional representative of Ayanna Pressley takes the historical heritage of Bill HR 40 reparations

(Tagstranslate) charles rangel

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Politics and Current

Like black students, they keep their completion in the anti-dei era

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graduation, dei


Black students and other affinity groups find recent ways to have a good time their completion, because the repression of Trump’s administration on Dei initiatives limits their involvement in the campus.

Over the years of graduation specific to affinity, they emphasize milestones for a lot of students at universities. However, the current government orders suppressed these celebrations, forcing graduates to rotate to take care of tradition alive.

Some institutions, similar to Harvard University, repel against some judgments at universities financed by federally. However, these emissions still influenced the programming specific to the race. Harvard decided to dismantle the funds used for all graduates of the affinity group. Despite this failure, Black Harvard graduates remain determined to keep the event on the spot.

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Like others, by supporting these racial events, many graduates claim that they celebrated cultural traditions, while recognizing their difficulties. Elder Harvard Elyse Martin-Smith took on things. With the support of Black Graduate Student Alliance and Harvard Black Alumni Society she and graduates accomplished the ceremony outside the campus.

“This is an excessive burden that is still put on black students to create a change we want to see,” Martin-Smith he said to .

Students in other schools, similar to the University of Kentucky, had similar restrictions. The university spokesman confirmed that the optional celebrations is not going to happen in the campus anymore.

“After many changes and directives regarding federal and state policy, the university will no longer host the celebrations based on identity or in special interest,” said spokesman for Jay Blanton University in a press release. “In the past, they took place outside our official starting ceremonies as optional celebrations and social events. We will continue to follow the law, at the same time celebrating all students and their characteristic achievements during our official start ceremonies.”

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However, students attempting to bypass the rules should be careful, calling their newly rated events. Students in Kentucky also followed the path much like Harvard’s black graduates, calling them the “older salute” version.

“I think that it is important to show that there are people from other places, not impaired areas, as well as many different environments and fights, and still reaching Great Britain (University of Kentucky) and still obtaining a diploma,” he shared in Great Britain, Kristopher Washington, who helped to introduce a brand new event. “It’s a huge achievement.”

This anti-dei repression not only affects graduates of assorted racial or ethnic identities. This also applies to this a part of the LGBTQia+community. Queer students also found places outside the campus to have a good time their achievements for their parent community.

Now students must move on despite the lack of approval and resources of college administration. However, they are involved in celebrating recent degrees in a way that clearly recognizes their heritage and community.

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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The new head of social insurance administration caught that he had no idea what his work was in condemning the leaking sound

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New Head of Social Security Administration Caught Admitting He Had No Idea What His Job Was In Damning Leaked Audio

The new head of social insurance administration said that he has no idea what the work entails when Trump’s administration used him for the position of the Social Insurance Commissioner.

Former director of Wall Street, Frank Bisignano, presented this attention on the leaking audio tapes meeting with agency managers from throughout the country on Wednesday.

ABC News has obtained a recording Meetings that weren’t independently confirmed by Atlanta Black Star.

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The new head of social insurance administration caught that he had no idea what his work was in condemning the leaking sound
Frank Bisignano, nominated by US President Donald Trump as a commissioner for social security administration, testifies at the hearing confirming the financial commission in the Senate in the office constructing of the Dirksen Senate on March 25, 2025 in Washington. (Photo of Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“So I get a phone call and it’s about social insurance. And I’m not really, I swear that I’m not looking for a job. And I say:” Well, what should I do? ” So I experience social insurance. Bisignano said on the tape.

“I say:” What the hell is the Social Insurance Commissioner? ” – he added.

The social security official told ABC News that the new head of the SS “is working on the transformation of the agency into the most important service” and that he clearly “makes fun of themselves so that everyone in the room feel free to conduct an open conversation …”

Millions of Americans depend on social security in the case of retirement income, disability and survival advantages. According to Trump’s administration, the agency was thrown away by significant employees of employees, closed local offices and breaks on web sites.

Bisignano said during the meeting that social insurance is secure and can proceed. “This is America, you know, a safety net – it doesn’t go away. And I hope you hear how I tell it every day. You know who wants me to tell people? Guess. President.”

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President Donald Trump promised during the campaign in 2024 that social security advantages would remain intact if he won the next term. But the agency is in confusion. In a number of short months of Trump’s return, almost half a dozen people supported the office.

“I was noticed:” Will the fuss from the last five months end? Are you here to cause more confusion? ” Bisignano said in the recording. “I do not think this can be a confusion of the last five months, although I will probably be the fifth because , November, right?”

Bisignano tried to brighten the mood of the meeting. “Are we having fun already? Everything is okay?”

According to ABC, the new head of the SSA also repeatedly criticized media leaks from the agency during the meeting. Although Bisignano has experience in managing large corporations, including complex payroll systems, he has no experience in the government or in the administration of social security.

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During confirmation interrogations This month before the Senate, the Democrats repeatedly recalled Bisignano comments about being “basically a person of dogs.” At some point, the so -called government efficiency department was led by billionaire Trump and head of Spacex Elon Musk.

In a controversial musk movement “Prusty, fraud and abuse” at the agency. Doge presented little proof of fraud or abuse and was not transparent in terms of movements he made in the agency.

Bisignano, previously the president and general director of Fiserv Inc., a technology company, tried to distance himself from Doge during his confirmation, but one of the Democrats quoted an announcement informing about informing about Bisignano personally asked the dog to intervene in SSA.

A spokesman for the White House ABC News said“Commissioner Bisignano brings a valuable and much needed perspective. Social security administration. The proven success of Commissioner Bisignano in the financial services industry is exceptionally positioning him to conduct reasonable efforts of Trump administration in order to modernize the agency and improve its performance.”

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Bisignano was confirmed at the starting of this month by the Republican majority in voting on the party line.

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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