jmc strategies

Will Obama grant TPS to Haitian Immigrants?

The word on the street is that President Barack Obama is seriously weighing whether or not to reverse the Bush Administration’s decision to not grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian immigrants living semi-openly in the US. Patrick Gaspard, the White House Director for Political Affairs, recently made a quick trip to Miami to confer with advocates for the Haitians and communicate the Administration’s concerns. How did we get there and will Obama do right by the Haitians?

Harry Belafonte, Most Charming Revolutionary

Over the last twenty years, I occasionally shared the limelight with Harry Belafonte, in the early 1990s in particular, as the campaigns on behalf of Haitian refugees denied asylum in the United States and democracy in Haiti joined to tilt the Clinton Administration’s hand towards democracy and human rights in Haiti. Belafonte spoke with the wisdom of a man who had seen his share of injustice and faced them with the conviction that comes from a place deep within.

Ella Baker: A Political Organizer’s Organizer

Baker, born on December 13, 1903 died in New York City on December 13, 1986. During the Great Depression, she became involved with the Young Negroes Cooperative League. Afterwards, she joined the NAACP, but jumped at the chance of working with the SCLC at its inception. Baker was instrumental at helping to establish the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) — from which Congressman John Lewis emerged to become a leader –, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

What was her philosophy and from which principles did she draw strength from?