Posts by Ben Dawson

  • Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free

    Our nation is about to celebrate its third commemoration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, marking the jubilant day in June 1865 when many enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were free from federal troops arriving in Galveston after the end of the Civil War. The news came more than two and a half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing all slaves in the Confederate states.

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  • “The Mindless Menace of Violence”

    The day after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who had announced his decision to run for President, gave a speech at the Cleveland City Club. He said that it was not a time for politics, but a time of “shame and sorrow,” and he spoke on the “mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives”.

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  • Gun Violence

    Wear Orange

    The Wear Orange movement began in honor of Hadiya Pendleton, an honors student and drum majorette who was shot and killed on a Chicago playground in January 2013 just days after she had performed in President Obama’s second inaugural parade.

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  • “I See Myself and the Books Give Me Hope”

    It’s hard to be what you can’t see, and just as children of color need to be able to see themselves in the books they read, all children need to be exposed to a wide range of books that reflect the true diversity of our nation and world as they really are.

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  • A Lesson from Ambassador James Joseph

    It was a crucial moment following Nelson Mandela’s 1994 election as South Africa’s first Black president, and Ambassador James Joseph became the only American ambassador to present his credentials to President Mandela as he worked closely with his new administration.

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  • So Much Work to Do

    Mother’s Day is often celebrated as an opportunity for families to show mothers they are appreciated through a day of “rest,” maybe with a home-cooked breakfast in bed or a dinner out. But mothers know that even in a rare moment when our hands are still, our minds and hearts are never fully at rest.

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  • Remembering the Children’s Crusade

    On this 60th anniversary of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade it is again time to remember, honor, and follow the example of the children who were frontline soldiers and transforming catalysts in the movement for civil rights and equal justice.

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  • Harry Belafonte

    When Harry Belafonte died on April 25, many people were quick to honor him not only as a luminous, barrier-breaking singer and actor but as an outspoken lifelong crusader for civil and human rights. I am especially grateful for his enduring legacy as a champion for children in the United States and across the world.

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  • Gun Violence

    It’s Always the Guns

    On April 15 there were seven mass shootings, the most in a single day so far this year. All of these only-in-America atrocities took place the very same week that many Republican politicians were attending the National Rifle Association’s annual convention to pledge their allegiance to the gun lobby.

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  • Gun Violence

    Doing Something

    There is an overwhelming chorus urging elected leaders to "do something" to stem our national gun violence epidemic.

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