Jon Jeter

Black Boston | Business | Politics

"Globalization is an international shakedown, and its targets are ordinary people across the globe..." declares Jon Jeter in his new book, Flat Broke in the Free Market: How Globalization Fleeced Working People. 

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Jon Jeter

Black Boston | Business | Politics

"Globalization is an international shakedown, and its targets are ordinary people across the globe..." declares Jon Jeter in his new book, Flat Broke in the Free Market: How Globalization Fleeced Working People. 

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Basic Black Live: Race, Geopolitics, and The World Cup

Arts & Culture | Black Boston | Politics

(Originally broadcast July 8, 2010)  Our panel: Latoyia Edwards, New England Cable News; Phillip Martin, senior investigative reporter, WGBH Radio; Callie Crossley, host of The Callie Crossley Show, WGBH Radio; Maria Burns Ortiz, writer, ESPN Soccernet; and Kim McLarin, writer-in-residence, Emerson College.

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Basic Black Live: Race, Geopolitics, and The World Cup

Arts & Culture | Black Boston | Politics

(Originally broadcast July 8, 2010)  Our panel: Latoyia Edwards, New England Cable News; Phillip Martin, senior investigative reporter, WGBH Radio; Callie Crossley, host of The Callie Crossley Show, WGBH Radio; Maria Burns Ortiz, writer, ESPN Soccernet; and Kim McLarin, writer-in-residence, Emerson College.

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Basic Black: The Battle for the Redistricting of Boston

Black Boston | Politics

Originally broadcast on October 26, 2012:

The deadline is fast approaching on a federal mandate for the Boston City Council to pass a plan that reorganizes the city’s voting districts. But there seems to be no clear consensus among council members, nor among many in Boston’s communities of color, on how to do it. The mayor has already vetoed two maps. A coalition representing African American, Asian, and Latino voters has vowed to sue if they are unsatisfied with the council's solution. Emotions are running high, and only ten days remain.


Image source:  FreeFoto.com
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Empowering Women & Girls: Nicole Roberts Jones

Arts & Culture | Black Boston | Health | Politics

by Talia Whyte


Nicole Roberts Jones was the mistress of ceremonies at Boston's 43rd annual Martin Luther King Day Breakfast.  As the old adage goes, behind every great man is an even greater woman.  Coretta Scott King played a vital role as Dr. King’s wife and organizing partner.  There were many other women who had participated in the civil rights movement, but unlike Mrs. King, Betty Shabazz and Rosa Parks, their accomplishments have been given little attention.

Ella Baker, Septima Poinsette Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer and Vivian Malone Jones are all unsung heroines from that era.  Baker was a longtime organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) who worked behind the scenes.  Because she was neither a man nor a minister, she was not seriously considered to become the head of the organization.  Clark, better known as the “queen mother” of the civil rights movement, was an educator who played a role in a legal victory that would allow blacks to become principals in public schools in Charleston, South Carolina.  Hamer was a Mississippi sharecropper, who was beaten and jailed in 1962 for trying to register to vote.  She co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and spoke at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.  Jones defied Gov. George Wallace by becoming one of the first black students to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963.

And there were countless other women, who are unknown, but worked tirelessly cooking meals and cleaning up after rallies.  These women should be the main role models for today’s black women, not stars on reality shows.   

While no woman gave a speech at the 1963 March on Washington, it seems like their accomplishments are now being recognized.  Myrlie Evers-Williams delivered the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration – the first ever done by a woman and layperson.

“There’s a Chinese saying, ’Women hold up half the world,” said former NAACP chairman Julian Bond. “In the case of the civil rights movement it’s probably three-quarters of the world.”

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A Conversation with Nelson George

Arts & Culture | Politics

An interview with author Nelson George.

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History Restored: The African Meeting House | Boston, MA (part 2)

Arts & Culture | Black Boston | Politics

The second in a five part series on the restoration of the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill in Boston, MA.
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Looking at the 2010 World Cup from Boston

Arts & Culture | Black Boston | Politics

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The World Cup and Soccer in the US

Arts & Culture | Health | Politics

Basic Black contributor Talia Whyte caught up with Alex Scott of the Boston Breakers to get a few thoughts on soccer in the US...

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