By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH, Staff Writer, The Daily Sun, Nov 1, 2023. The Cooper Street Recreation Center, Image by ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH PUNTA GORDA — Charlotte County NAACP President Connie Payne asked the Punta Gorda City Council for communication, connection, engagement and partnership with them for future operations of the Cooper Street Rec Center. At the Wednesday City Council meeting,
By Joe Biden, president of the United States, published in The Washington Post, August 27, 2023. Sixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans marched on Washington for jobs and freedom. In describing his dream for us all, Dr. King spoke of redeeming the “promissory note to which every
By Rosemary Nidiry and Lauren-Brooke Eisen, August 14, 2023, The Brennan Center for Justice. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has once again taken it upon himself to remove a local elected prosecutor from office. Last week, the target was Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell, who won office in 2020 promising reforms that keep communities safe while
By HEATHER COX RICHARDSON, Letters from an American, July 22, 2023. The Florida Board of Education approved new state social studies standards on Wednesday (Jul 20, 2023), including standards for African American history, civics and government, American history, and economics. Critics immediately called out the middle school instruction in African American history that includes “how
By Justin J. Pearson, Guest Columnist, The New York Times, April 12, 2023 Mr. Pearson is a community organizer in Memphis and was a Tennessee state representative before his expulsion on Thursday. On April 12, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to reinstate Justin J. Pearson to his seat in the Tennessee House. MEMPHIS — In
The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 24, 2023. Submit your own letter to the editor by clicking HERE. I am writing to express my opposition to Senate Bill 254, which would allow the state to take temporary custody of children who may be receiving gender-affirming care now
By Henry Louis Gates Jr., The New York Times, Feb 17, 2023. Dr. Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. He is the host of the PBS television series “Finding Your Roots.” Lurking behind the concerns of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, over the content of
By Dr. Ivory Toldson, Director of Education Innovation and Research Strategy, NAACP| Empowerment Programs The NAACP is outraged by the Florida Department of Education’s (DOE) recent “whitesplaining” of Black history and culture. The DOE’s pathetic attempt to defend the DeSantis administration from criticism after they rejected AP African-American Studies shows just how out-of-touch they are
Participate or attend our Punta Gorda MLK parade today! Staging will be near the Charlotte Harbor Event Center, located at 75 Taylor Street in Punta Gorda, FL. Staging time for parade float participants will be at 9:00AM and walkers at 10:00AM. The parade will begin promptly at 11:00AM at 75 Taylor St. in Punta Gorda,
When Christopher Monzon, a GOP canvasser working with Marco Rubio’s campaign was revealed to have extensive ties to white nationalist groups and a well-documented history of racist and antisemitic comments, Rubio spent an entire week defending him and ignoring calls to denounce his bigotry. Just recently, members of the Proud Boys, including those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, rallied for Marco
By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post Columnist, October 10, 2022. President Biden’s historic pardon of thousands of Americans convicted of a federal crime for simple marijuana possession is a long overdue correction in the overheated war on drugs — a failed effort that has disproportionately affected Black and Brown people and wreaked havoc in communities of color. It’s hard
Wow! This editorial was published by the Rupert Murdoch empire, who also own FOX. Even they deplore the danger of the Trumplicans! By The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 2022. Mr. Trump let loose another tirade against the GOP Senate leader on Friday. “Is McConnell approving all of these Trillions of Dollars
By DIANE RADO, Florida Phoenix, July 26, 2022. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried on Tuesday asked Gov. Ron DeSantis to condemn the weekend’s hateful demonstrations in Tampa, saying in a letter that “given the level of criticism you have directed at me over policy differences, it is deeply concerning that you cannot muster even a tweet
The following editorial was published in our local newspaper, The Daily Sun on July 3, 2022. OUR POSITION: There should be no appetite for, nor acceptance of, bigotry here or anywhere. People in Venice, Sarasota, Punta Gorda and elsewhere have been waking up to find a vile little package in their yards — a plastic
By Jim Hussey, Charlotte County Dems contributing writer. Even the most decent person can often look out at the world and assume that life beyond their direct experience is probably close to what they’ve seen. If we – as residents of Charlotte County – were to make a similar judgment about the Asian American and
BY KIRA LERNER , THE OHIO CAPITAL JOURNAL, MAY 2, 2022. Florida authorities arrested a Black man while he was staying in a homeless shelter and charged him with voting illegally in a case tied to Republicans’ drive to root out election fraud. But Kelvin Bolton’s arrest raises questions about the rollout of Amendment 4,
By Teresa Jenkins, Charlotte County Democrats Chair. Black History Month is coming to a historic close with the nomination of the first Black woman, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the U.S. Supreme Court. As we celebrate the decision by President Biden to promote a Black woman to the highest judicial post in our nation, we
By Tim Craig and Lori Rozsa, The Washington Post, Feb 7, 2022. MIAMI — The school system in Florida’s most populous county includes students whose families moved here from 160 nations. Its expansive cultural mix is represented in the district’s curriculum, which includes not only American history, but also the stories of violent government upheavals, such as the revolution
Black history is American history, and Black history is Florida history. The following information is shared courtesy of Florida Watch. Each February, we celebrate Black History Month to honor the contributions and sacrifices of African Americans who have helped shape our nation. Black History Month celebrates the rich cultural heritage and triumphs of the Black community
By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post Columnist, February 1, 2022. The first rule of the MAGA movement: Never condemn white supremacists. In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump in an interview with Jake Tapper refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who had publicly endorsed his campaign. (Trump later improbably claimed his refusal to disavow Duke was due
By Christiane Calixte, The Washington Post Guest columnist, January 14, 2022. Christiane Calixte is a junior at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn. As a Black high school junior, I have to say: The backlash I’ve seen against the teaching of critical race theory is unbelievable. In most schools, as has been well established, critical race theory —