Harlem Children’s Zone, a Harlem based organization that helps needy minority children achieve success, has recently gained attention for the success of their Promise Acadamey charter schools. It was revealed in a Harvard study that the three schools, with extended school year and increased hours in the school day , have proven to close the black-white achievement gap in mathematics and reduce it in other subjects.

President and CEO, Geoffrey Canada is now directing his passions towards the fight against childhood obesity. Read the Harvard report below and tune in to Black in America 2 tonight at 8p ETand to AC360° tonight at 10p ET to hear details about Canada's recent community efforts.

Click here to read Harvard's findings

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in TONIGHT at 8 p.m..

Suvro Banerji
AC360° Intern

These behind-the-scenes pictures were taken last night at Times Square during the live pre-show of Black in America Part 2. It featured some of the most prominent voices in Black Radio including Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Steve Harvey and D.L. Hughley.

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m.

Mia Jackson is a recent graduate of Rice's Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a program that trains future minority leaders in business.

John Rice
Special to CNN

President Obama has challenged all Americans to participate in the volunteer service movement and to support initiatives that help solve the problems that plague our communities.

He recently introduced the Social Innovation Fund, intended to help increase the impact of the most effective and innovative nonprofits in our communities. This is a tremendous step in the right direction, but in order to expand these initiatives, we need a broader pool of leaders with a deep understanding of the communities they are serving and who have the skills, experience and relationships required to succeed in leadership roles.

According to the Bridgespan Group, a leading nonprofit consulting firm, the number of vacant senior manager roles in the nonprofit arena is ever increasing, with 24,000 positions available in 2009 alone. Over the next 10 years, this sector will need to attract and develop more than two times the number of people currently employed in order to fill these roles. This next generation of leaders must come from within the communities that struggle most, as these leaders are the most passionate about making change and have the most to gain if successful.

Keep reading...

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..

Black in America 2

The African-American journey includes public struggles and private decisions, epic events and personal stories. In that intersection of ordinary life and the stuff of history books lies the journey of a people.

Begin the journey >>

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..

Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested last week on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Michael Eric Dyson
Special to CNN

Last Thursday, President Obama, in his fiery speech before the NAACP Convention, admitted that "an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a prison."

But he surely couldn't have imagined that only a couple of hours before his oration, one of America's most prominent scholars - and a distinguished professor at Obama's alma mater, Harvard University - would breathe cruel and ironic life into that sad statistic.

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. is simply the most powerful and influential black scholar in our nation's history.

He received a doctorate at Cambridge University long before the culture wars became au courant; he was among the first group of figures to receive a MacArthur "Genius Award" Fellowship; he wrote the finest work of literary criticism in a generation with "Signifying Monkey"; he was named by Time magazine as one of the "25 Most Influential Americans"; he has a boatload of honorary degrees; and he has been a ubiquitous media presence and thoughtful interpreter of race and culture for a quarter-century.

But none of that made a bit of difference when Gates returned from a research trip to China to find the front door to his Harvard-owned house jammed and enlisted the assistance of his driver to muscle the door loose.

Read more...

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..

Soledad O'Brien has been the host of the first two installments of 'Black in America'

Malaak Compton-Rock
Special to CNN

In the words of my mentor and America's foremost child advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of The Children's Defense Fund, it's time to "raise a ruckus people, it is time to raise a ruckus!"

CNN's "Black in America" raised many critical issues facing African-American people in this great country of ours. It was not pretty, it was not flattering, but it was very, very frank. The show delved into the negative issues that have plagued the African-American community for generations, i.e., crime, education, single parent families, drug abuse and the like.

People got mad. People sent many e-mails and letters to Soledad O'Brien and CNN and cried foul. People said "Black in America" was not consistent with the lives of many African-American people and was one-sided. Blogs and Web sites popped up all over the place where people "raised a ruckus" about the content of the show.

I read a lot of these comments. As a matter of fact, I was obsessed with people's views for many weeks after the documentary aired. And the more I read, the more I got angry. The more I read, the more I wanted to "raise my own ruckus." But I was frustrated and upset for a very different reason than most.

Read more...

Program note: For more insight on race and the health care system, tune in tonight for Dr. Sanjay Gupta's segment "Medical Apartheid". He goes in depth with two patients who are victims of racial disparity. Watch AC360° tonight 10p ET and on Tuesday and Wednesday, 8p ET for Black In America.

Neil Calman, MD and Maxine Golub, MPH
Bronx Health Reach

Bronx Health REACH is a coalition comprised of 30 community-based organizations and 14 faith-based groups dedicated to eliminating racial disparities in health outcome. The Coalition has been working together since 1999, first examining the causes of racial disparities in the community through focus groups and literature reviews, and then implementing community based initiatives to address specific concerns such as diet and exercise, diabetes management, public health education, provider education, and legal and regulatory issues. The Coalition has trained community health advocates and faith-based
health coordinators to assist in these efforts.

The unfortunate reality is that people of color in this country suffer worse health outcomes than whites in virtually every measure of health, regardless of economic and insurance status. Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be under and uninsured, report greater
difficulty obtaining health care services, and suffer significantly worse health outcomes, including shorter life spans and increased deaths from preventable illnesses.

These disparities have been carefully documented by The Institute of Medicine, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund. Bronx Health REACH has identified a number of factors that contribute to racial disparities in health outcomes.

Click here for the full report...

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..

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Soledad O’Brien jokes with several of the Journey for Change participants. Left to right: Steven Pallares, Zuliana Burnett, Sayris Pallares, Sadara Lewis, Queen Clyde, Mariah Ralph, Soledad O’Brien, Imaan Williams, Yolaine Calixte, Jenee Lawson, Sydney Smart, Daisa Carr. Joshua Hall on the floor.

Soledad O’Brien
CNN Anchor and Special Correspondent

Over the past year, 30 kids from the Bushwick Salvation Army Community Center have traveled to South African shantytowns, hosted a car wash to raise money for a burn victim, helped rebuild around New Orleans and cleaned up on the streets of Brooklyn.

They are all a part of Journey for Change, a group started by Malaak Compton-Rock to empower children who are growing up in neighborhoods rife with crime and poverty. Malaak, an activist who also happens to be the wife of comedian Chris Rock, believes these kids often limit their dreams. Her dream is to turn them into global citizens who believe in themselves and think big!

I traveled with these amazing young people, ages 12 to 16, eight thousand miles to Johannesburg, South Africa, and I have watched them as they changed and grew as a result of the experience. Their year-long journey will be a part of Black in America 2 on CNN July 22 at 9p and July 23 at 8p. We also continue to post additional material from the trip at CNN.com/BlackinAmerica. Below are blogs from three of the children: Imaan, Joshua and Sydney. I asked them to explain how the South African trip changed them.

Imaan Williams, 12

The trip to South Africa has changed my whole life. I see things in a different way than I did before. Before I went to South Africa I would think everything should be about me and nobody else. I had my moments where I would think to myself, and say in my head, ‘why did God put me on this earth and if it is supposed to make me feel like nothing.’ Then, I was taken on the trip to South Africa and my whole opinion of life changed. I realized God did have a plan for me and it was a good one too. The trip showed me that even though life has its ups and downs, you have to keep on moving on. I saw kids less fortunate than me and I had all these emotions running through me: SAD, MAD, HAPPY, ANGRY, JOYFUL, and most of all PRIVILEGED. God has truly blessed me with this opportunity and I hope another one comes soon. Peace and Love.

Joshua Hall, 15

Journey for Change has changed my life in so many ways. I have had the opportunity to serve others globally and here at home. It’s interesting to see what we consider as a need is a luxury in other parts of the world. I had the opportunity to go to South Africa and I was overwhelmed with the needs of so many people. I realized that we take a lot of things for granted: clean running water, a toothbrush, toilet paper, and even my own room! It was a real “eye opener,” and so hard to leave knowing there was so much more that needs to be done.

As Journey for Change Global Ambassadors our year of service took us to South Africa for two weeks of service, New Orleans to help build a new home for a Hurricane Katrina victims, the U.S. House of Representatives to meet with Rep. Maxine Waters, the United Nations to see how humanitarian efforts are being handled globally, a visit to CNN to see first hand how things were handled behind the scenes, college tours to Morehouse College, Howard University and much more. None of this would have been possible without Ms. Malaak Compton-Rock (‘Auntie’). I am grateful for the love and time she spends with us. She always tells us “service is the rent we pay for living”.

It truly has been a journey that changed me!!

Sydney Smart, 13

The Journey for Change trip to South Africa has empowered me to make better decisions for my life. Before I joined the program, my behavior was very selfish and ungrateful, but after those two amazing weeks in South Africa my world was turned upside down and I have improved. When I saw the horrific ways people lived in Diepsloot and Soweto, I was shocked. Many families didn't have food and couldn't afford their medical expenses. And a lot of kids were abandoned because their mothers died of AIDS and that was so sad. But to see how happy their faces were to see us because they knew we cared, changed all of my perspectives on: God, life and love and my whole Journey for Change.
After that life-changing trip, I have been volunteering a lot for the community and I have a better attitude toward decision making, school, and family.

CNN's Blackin America premieres July 22-July 23 8p ET

Benjamin Todd Jealous
Special to CNN

As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People prepares to celebrate its Centennial in New York, the city of its birth, I'm confident that we as a nation have turned an important corner on the long road toward racial and economic equality for all Americans.

Established in 1909 by a core group of black and white Americans, the NAACP's mission has been clarified and sharpened during our first 100 years. We have covered a lot of ground in the march to improve the lives of millions of Americans, but there remains much more work to be done.

Keep reading...

Michael Jackson was one of the first black global superstars.

Debra Alban
CNN

Michael Jackson was an international superstar, and many in the black community herald him for breaking down racial barriers in the music industry.

"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color way before Tiger Woods, way before Oprah Winfrey, way before Barack Obama," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "Michael did with music what they later did in sports and in politics and in television. And no controversy will erase the historic impact."

As the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson and his brothers "became a cutting-edge example of black crossover artists," said Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture at Duke University's Department of African and African American Studies.

"You basically had five working-class black boys with Afros and bell bottoms, and they really didn't have to trade any of that stuff in order to become mainstream stars," Neal said.

Young Michael Jackson was the first black "bubblegum teen star" in the vein of Monkees singer Davy Jones, Neal said.

Jackson continued as a pioneer in the black culture when he broke barriers by appearing on MTV, and by breaking sales records with the 1982 album, "Thriller."

"At the time that he releases 'Thriller,' I always argue that MTV was arguably the best example of cultural apartheid in the United States," Neal said.

Keep reading...

Black in America 2 premieres July 22-23

CNN

Back in 1972, on an episode of "All in the Family," Gloria posed the following riddle to Archie and Meathead.

Father and son go driving. There's an accident. The father is killed instantly, the son is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. The surgeon walks in, takes one look at the patient and says, "I can't operate on this boy. He's my son."

The answer to the apparent paradox eluded Archie, Meathead and the guys down at Kelsey's bar for the balance of the half hour. They floated theories involving stepfathers, sons-in-law, priests, adoptions and returns from the dead. All of which Archie apparently found more believable than the true answer which was, of course, that the surgeon was the boy's mother. "If that's the answer," he spouted, "that's the dumbest riddle I ever hoid!"

Thirty-seven years later it is, perhaps, difficult to appreciate why this riddle ever was a riddle, how so apparent an answer could have stymied Archie, Meathead and, I would wager, the vast majority of the viewing audience.

The riddle speaks volumes not just about how the world has changed in four decades, but also about how unconscious expectations can blind us to the obvious. In 1972, one expected a man when one heard the word "surgeon."

Much as, in 2009, one expects a white kid when one hears the word "scholar."

People will deny this, will say all the right and politic things. But the disclaimers will be as thin and transparent as Saran Wrap. Black, white and otherwise, we are all socialized by the same forces and all carry, by and large, the same unconscious assumptions. One of which is that a certain level of achievement is black and another is white.

This is what you are hearing when a black kid speaks standard English and another black kid chides him for "talking white." This is what George W. Bush was alluding to when he decried "the soft bigotry of low expectations." And this is what we need to address forthrightly if we ever hope to close the so-called achievement gap that looms between black kids and white ones.

Keep reading

Program Note: Tune in to CNN’s full coverage of President Obama’s first 100 days with the best political team on television Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Marjorie Connelly
The New York Times

Barack Obama’s presidency seems to be altering the public perception of race relations in the United States. Two-thirds of Americans now say race relations are generally good, and the percentage of blacks who say so has doubled since last July, according to the latest New York Times/ CBS News poll.

Despite that, half of blacks still say whites have a better chance of getting ahead in American society, the poll found. Black Americans remain among the president’s staunchest supporters; 70 percent of black respondents now say the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 34 percent of whites.

The poll found broad support for Mr. Obama’s approach on a variety of issues, including one of the most contentious: whether Congress should investigate the harsh interrogation tactics authorized by George W. Bush. Sixty-two percent of Americans share Mr. Obama’s view that hearings are unnecessary.

Read more...

Charlene Muhammad
New America Media

A recent study indicates that of the major ethnic groups impacted by unemployment during the current U.S. recession, Black men have experienced the greatest job losses since the crisis officially began in November 2007.

“What's missing from national media coverage of this recession is plainly a great deal of dishonesty about who's losing their jobs. This is overwhelmingly a blue collar, retail sales, low level recession,” said Andrew Sum, professor of economics and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., which published the study.

“The Impacts of the 2007-2009 National Recession on Male Employment in the U.S. through January 2009; The Massive Concentration of Job Losses Among Males Especially Black Men and Blue Collar Workers” tracked employment losses in the recession across gender groups of workers overall, and in the four major ethnicities—Asian, Black, Hispanic and White.

Read more...

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America series, Soledad O'Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families, 40 years after the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination this Saturday & Sunday, 8 p.m. ET

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CNN's Soledad O'Brien pieces together the story of the fatal moment in Martin Luther King Jr.'s death.

Through first-hand witnesses and original documents from that time, special correspondent Soledad O'Brien reconstructs the evidence and the story of the death of Martin Luther King Junior. Her CNN Presents documentary, "Eyewitness to Murder: the King Assassination," airs this Saturday and Sunday at 8 pm, ET.

Among those contributing to this special program are former ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman John Lewis, various policemen and firemen, the medical examiner, and the brother of accused killer James Earl Ray. We look at the man on the balcony who joined the CIA, the military intelligence agents on a nearby firehouse roof, the FBI officials who tried to drive King to suicide, but in the end, find no hard evidence pointing to any one other than Ray.

Editor's Note: In ‘Black in America 2,’ Soledad O'Brien investigates the innovative and unexpected ways people are confronting the most difficult issues facing their community in "Black in America 2." Watch this July on CNN.

Program Note: In CNN's Black in America series, Soledad O'Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families, 40 years after the death of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watch Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination this Saturday & Sunday, 8 p.m. ET

__________________________________________________________________________

Through first-hand witnesses and original documents from that time, special correspondent Soledad O'Brien reconstructs the evidence and the story of the death of Martin Luther King Junior. Her CNN Presents documentary, "Eyewitness to Murder: the King Assassination," airs this Saturday and Sunday at 8 pm, ET.

Among those contributing to this special program are former ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman John Lewis, various policemen and firemen, the medical examiner, and the brother of accused killer James Earl Ray. We look at the man on the balcony who joined the CIA, the military intelligence agents on a nearby firehouse roof, the FBI officials who tried to drive King to suicide, but in the end, find no hard evidence pointing to any one other than Ray.

Editor's Note: In ‘Black in America 2,’ Soledad O'Brien investigates the innovative and unexpected ways people are confronting the most difficult issues facing their community in "Black in America 2." Watch this July on CNN.

S. Lee Jamison
The New York Times

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Shaquille O'Neal!

So many African-Americans have Irish-sounding last names - Eddie Murphy, Isaac Hayes, Mariah Carey, Dizzy Gillespie, Toni Morrison, H. Carl McCall - that you would think that the long story of blacks and Irish coming together would be well documented. You would be wrong.

Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of "Interracial Intimacies; Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption," said that when it comes to written historical exploration of black-Irish sexual encounters, "there are little mentions, but not much."

And most African-Americans do not know a lot about their family names.

"Quite frankly, I always thought my name was Scotch, not Irish." said Mr. McCall, the former New York State comptroller.

But the Irish names almost certainly do not come from Southern slaveholders with names like Scarlett O'Hara. Most Irish were too poor to own land. And some blacks, even before the Civil War, were not slaves.

Read more...

Patrik Jonsson and Yvonne Zipp
The Christian Science Monitor

At a time when America has elected its first black president, more African-American men are losing jobs than at any time since World War II.

No group has been hit harder by the downturn. Employment among black men has fallen 7.8 percent since November of 2007, according to a report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

The trend is intimately tied to education, the report’s authors say. Black women – who are twice as likely as black men to go to college – have faced no net job losses. By contrast, black men are disproportionately employed in those blue-collar jobs that have been most highly affected – think third shifts at rural manufacturing plants.

It threatens to add to the difficulties of vulnerable families in a community already beset by high incarceration rates and low graduation numbers.

Moreover, it puts renewed focus on the cultural and economic stereotypes of black women and men – mythologies and realities about the black family that remain challenging for the country, and Washington, to address.

Read more...

Program Note: Watch CNN’s Black in America as Soledad O’Brien examines the successes, struggles and complex issues faced by black men, women and families. Tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien meets two brothers with two divergent paths - one a professor, the other a prisoner.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Special to CNN

On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder marked Black History Month with an address at the Department of Justice. Holder clearly and courageously acknowledged the history of American racism.

He forthrightly argued that, "to get to the heart of this country, one must examine its racial soul." Because public officials so rarely discuss race, Holder's was an unusually bold statement.

But ultimately, Eric Holder's discussion of race in America was a failure. It failed because Holder spoke more like a grade school principal than like the attorney general of the United States. He framed our nation's continuing racial work as a struggle to feel comfortable, be tolerant, and have "frank conversations about racial matters."

Read More...