Category Archives: African Americans

The Case for Reparations: Champaign County

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Jeff Trask

According to the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, Black people in America own 10 cents of wealth for every dollar a white person owns, have lower life expectancies and higher unemployment, will earn $1 million less during their lifetimes, are … Continue reading →

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What is the Radical Black Church?

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Reverend Terrance Thomas

How Do We Define the “Black” Church? In some sense, the Black Church can be readily defined by its music, style of preaching and sounds. Yet these are only surface definitions—it is so much more. The Black Church was born … Continue reading →

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The Prison Economy from the Inside

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Shamar Betts

Nineteen-year-old Shamar Betts of Urbana had no previous criminal record when he was arrested for “inciting a riot” via a Facebook post he wrote after witnessing the video of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. He was sentenced to three years … Continue reading →

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Black History: Is This Really 2024?

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

I am a mother of three sons and a grandmother of 83 years of age. This incident happened on Wednesday, January 31, in the middle of the afternoon. I was going to visit a friend and on the way, I … Continue reading →

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At the Feds

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Shamar Betts

Shamar Betts had no previous criminal record but was sentenced to three years in federal prison for “inciting a riot” through a Facebook post he wrote after witnessing the video of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. He was also made … Continue reading →

 212 total views

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There Is Only Old People Here. All the Children Are Gone

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

There’s no hope for a better tomorrow. There’s no vision or dream for a better reason. The paths are darkened by fear and evil forces that dwells in the darkness that roams the corners of the street. There is only … Continue reading →

 236 total views,  1 views today

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Code Blue: Suffering through DWB in Rantoul

Posted on 08/27/2023 by Kevin Williams

This essay, submitted to the Rantoul Press in 2009, was never published. The author shares it now to give context to community concerns with policing in Rantoul in the wake of recent police shootings of young Black men. “You were … Continue reading →

 1,125 total views

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Champaign County, Justice, Police, police accountability, Police Brutality, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Section, Voices | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Code Blue: Suffering through DWB in Rantoul

Diesel Therapy

Posted on 07/18/2023 by Shamar Betts

The odyssey of Urbana resident Shamar Betts continues. Betts was arrested for authoring a Facebook post at age 19 in the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020. He was sentenced to four years in federal prison and charged … Continue reading →

 596 total views

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The Lavenders: Past and Present Queer Journalism in Champaign-Urbana

Posted on 05/01/2023 by Public i

On February 23, UCIMC Executive Director Miriam Larson hosted a virtual conversation with representatives of two generations of activists in Champaign-Urbana. Mary Lee Sargent, former director of Parkland College’s Women’s Studies Program (now residing in New Hampshire), was one of … Continue reading →

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Slaves—Our Ancestors

Posted on 05/01/2023 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

We give praise to those who came before us, fighting for the right to be free. Who were they? They are our ancestors, who suffered unendurable pain. Pain, from the snake-like whip that mutilated their flesh as it bit into … Continue reading →

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Posted in African American history, African American Women in Champaign-Urbana, African Americans, Arts, Local Arts, Section, Violence, Voices, Women | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Slaves—Our Ancestors

Why I Called Herschel Walker Coonish: The Right of Black People to Call Out their Traitors

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua

Editors’ Note: This article has been held until after the Georgia runoff election so there would be no suggestion of a political endorsement. Since Donald Trump’s incursion into US politics in 2015, deprecation and intimidation have become pervasive. Trump and … Continue reading →

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How The Issue of Representation Impacts Central Illinois

Posted on 12/31/2022 by Marcus Pruitt

The issue of unequal representation of cultures has plagued the nation since its birth, often resulting in the perversion of people’s natural rights. In central Illinois, it extends that perversion through aggressive discrimination. Although minorities have seen more representation on … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump v. Shamar Betts

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Shamar Betts

I, Shamar Betts, incited a riot through a Facebook post encouraging my people to join alongside the rest of the world in an attempt to express our feelings on the tragic death of George Floyd in May of 2020. Although … Continue reading →

 577 total views

Posted in African American, African Americans, BLM, Court System, incarceration, January 6 insurrection, Justice, Prisoners, Racism, Trump, Voices of Color, Youth | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Donald Trump v. Shamar Betts

A Time of Monsters: The New Nadir and the Crisis of the Black Worker

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Gus Wood

We currently reside in what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci called “A Time of Monsters.” Exacerbated by the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, the Black working classes continue to struggle under what Black Studies scholar Sundiata Cha-Jua has dubbed “the New Nadir.” For … Continue reading →

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Juneteenth Freedom Day

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Aaron Ammons

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19 that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with … Continue reading →

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Juneteenth 2022 at Randolph Street Garden

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Public i

Seitu Ken Jones, a multidisciplinary artist who believes in the power of public art to link the past and present, spent 2020–21 as a visiting artist at the UIUC Center for Advanced Study. He returned this past June to work … Continue reading →

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Reckless Law, Shameless Order: Behind the Scenes

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Nasrin Navab

  One afternoon in April of 2021 Faranak Miraftab called me to ask if I was interested in holding an art workshop with formerly incarcerated artists in continuation of the “IDENSCITY,” a conceptual art space that I had been developing … Continue reading →

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Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Arts, Immigrants, incarceration, Local Arts, Prison Arts, Prisoners, Voices, Voices of Color, Women | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Reckless Law, Shameless Order: Behind the Scenes

SB 148 and the Assault On Teaching Black History

Posted on 03/31/2022 by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua

Florida’s SB 148 represents the surging wave of white supremacist fascism sweeping across the country. Entitled “An Act Relating to Individual Freedom,” it symbolizes the deceptive, authoritarian, and racist motivations that characterize the white nationalist Republican Party. By making the … Continue reading →

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Ending Gun Violence Requires Long-Term Investments in People and Communities

Posted on 02/10/2022 by Helen A. Neville and Nickholas Grant

Quansay L. Markham (17 years old), Jonathon McPherson (17), Jadeen Moore (19), Acarrie Ingram-Triner (19), and Jordan Atwater-Lewis (17) are among the people who were shot and killed in Champaign-Urbana in 2021. Are there things we could have done as … Continue reading →

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What’s Understood Need Not Be Explained

Posted on 02/10/2022 by Crushion Stubbs

I’m curious to know, as a reading eye and listening ear, what are you expecting to hear from me? That the feds were somehow wrong, and Shamar was right? Or that he was justified in putting out some call to … Continue reading →

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