BY PAM ADAMS The new lynching memorial in Montgomery, Ala. is a prayer and a challenge. The memorial, officially the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, is the end of a public eulogy, in stone and steel, for the long-buried…
BY PAM ADAMS The average cost of an enslaved Black man in the 1800s was about $750. At $15,000 in today’s dollars, that’s not that much less than the average annual cost per inmate at many Illinois prisons. It’s a…
BY PAM ADAMS He was George Stewart or S.W. Stewart or another variation. The name changed from newspaper to newspaper. He may have been part Indian, according to the newspaper in Toluca where his alleged crime occurred. Several points are…
BY PAM ADAMS The Equal Justice Initiative documented 56 racial terror lynchings in Illinois, the third highest number among states outside the South. Listed here are some of the lynchings in Central Illinois. Andrew Richards, 9/11/1877, Winchester, Scott County Nelson…
BY PAM ADAMS “At the site where you are standing, enslaved people were imprisoned with livestock, horses, pigs and cattle.” This is the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. The museum site shares a trendy, brick-paved alleyway of bars…
A vital piece of federal legislation, the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, awaits final Congressional approval before legislators adjourn in December. It would authorize the full, permanent, dedicated funding of America’s most important conservation and recreation…
The current administration is establishing itself in history for using the power of the executive branch to reverse progress made over the past 50 years toward implementing the values of equality and wisdom. Instead, we see threats to better U.S.…
BY ELIIDA LAKOTA Chase Iron Eyes is a member of the Standing Rock Nation in North Dakota. He is an attorney, an Indian activist and a member of the Lakota People’s Law Project. He was a Democratic candidate who ran…
As Christmas decorations and celebrations surround us, we often take for granted the story of the birth of Jesus that created the reason for this holiday. I have found that as we remember all the other strange and miraculous stories…
The U.S. Agriculture Department planned to speed up poultry plant production four years ago after lobbying by big poultry processors, endangering 250,000 workers and potentially putting sick chickens on consumers’ plates. But labor protested, and the USDA backed down. In…
