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Home Issue: 1075

Issue: 1075

February 19, 2026

Cover Story

Black History Month – Shirley Chisholm Unbought & Unbossed

By The Black Commentator Guest Commentator

The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers -- a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.

On January 25, 1972 Shirley Chisholm, Member of Congress from New York's Twelfth District announced her candidacy for President of the United States. She became the…

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Commentary

Jesse Jackson, a Defender for LGBTQ+ Rights – Inclusion

By The Reverend Irene Monroe Editorial Board

Jackson was among the first Black ministers and political leaders to promote AIDS education and prevention. He worked to destigmatize the virus by becoming the first Black clergy member to be publicly tested.

Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson died on February 17, 2026. A protégé of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was among the last remaining…

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Commentary

Trump And Right Wing Causes

By Dr. Elwood Watson, PhD Guest Commentator

Reactionary populists have made their intentions clear to resist compromising their culturally exclusionary agendas compared to their more fair-minded conservative forebears.

For people who believe that only straight, heterosexual White men should be in charge of running powerful agencies or even a country, these are interesting times.…

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Commentary

From Reconstruction to the SAVE Act: The Politics of Paperwork

By Dr. Julianne Malveaux, PhD Editorial Board

The history of American democracy teaches us that administrative mechanisms are rarely neutral.

Frederick Douglass did not know the day he was born. Like many enslaved people, he was denied even the dignity of documentation. Birth dates were approximations.…

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View from the Battlefield

NFL Half-Times and Revolution

By Jamala Rogers Editorial Board

Most people in this country don't know these are stolen lands and that the indigenous people have never given up their right to sovereignty and self-determination.

Gil Scott-Heron warned us in1970 that the “revolution will not be televised,” but he could not foresee the cultural hijackings of a corporate world stage by…

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