News and Issues

Jo Freeman writes: As I passed McPherson Sq., one of the two Occupy DC hotspots in 2011-12, I saw several white tents and a stage. Days later I learned that these were put up by Bond Events, a female-owned event production company hired by the People’s Watch Party. PWP is a new coalition of 20 progressive groups which came together to produce an election day party on Black Lives Matter Plaza. The Plaza covers two blocks of 16th St. north of Lafayette Square that were turned into a pedestrian mall in response to the June protests. The DC government painted Black Lives Matter in 35 foot yellow capital letters from K to H Streets and DC’s Mayor officially renamed it on June 5. It has become the protest center of the Capitol. more »

Employment among the nation’s three million post-9/11 veterans was higher from 2014 to 2018 than it was among those who never served in the armed forces, according to a new US Census Bureau report on November 10th. In the 2014-2018 period, about 80% of post-9/11 veterans were employed compared with only 75% of nonveterans. In contrast with older veteran groups, such as those from the Vietnam era or Gulf War, post-9/11 veterans encountered very different labor markets after returning from the armed forces. As a result, post-9/11 veterans represent a unique and growing segment of the veteran population and the broader US workforce.   more »

Slavery ended when Turner was a middle aged man. It was 1865, the American Civil War was over, and the era we call Reconstruction had begun. As a freedman, Turner joined the Republican Party and was elected tax collector of his county. In 1869 he won a seat on the Selma, Alabama town council. The following year he ran for the US House of Representatives on the Republican ticket. He won and served in Washington from 1871 to 1873. Like most incumbents, he hoped to be re-elected but another African American ran as an independent and split the Black vote, leaving victory to the fusion party white candidate. Turner returned to Selma. He resumed his life as a farmer and businessman but also kept a hand in politics including serving as a delegate to the 1880 Republican convention. more »

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that in the same year we celebrate the centennial anniversary of women securing the right to vote we also recognize the unprecedented number of women who ran for Congress. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, nearly 650 women ran for seats in the House of Representatives and Senate in 2020, with more than 300 of these candidates making it through the primaries and into the general election. As of press time, 130 women have been elected to serve in the 117th Congress. This number includes the 18 incumbent Senators who were not up for reelection this year, as well as the four Delegates to the House of Representatives reelected from American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. However, a number of races have not been called, so the number of women serving in the next Congress is expected to include a record number. more »