Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
Many are Happy About President Nana Afuko-Addo Re-election
In light of Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo’s re-election for a second term in office on Wednesday — a result his rival John Mahama's camp said it would appeal, supporters of the president’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) are celebrating the win. Prince Ofori, an NPP Supporter, is ecstatic to know his chosen president will stay in office, "NDC, the opposition party. We have retired them. They don't have anything to do anymore. We are the government in power, our president Nana Akufo Addo. The champion president. The number one."
According to the electoral commission, Akufo-Addo received 51.59% of the vote in the presidential race — beating opposition leader and former president Mahama's 47.36%.
The announcement on Wednesday was greeted with chanting and dancing by a crowd of supporters in the seaside capital Accra. On the other hand, the opposition has called the election "flawed."
Nyarko, another NPP Supporter, could not contain his pleasure in knowing that the opposition will not take power, "The NDC are liars. We no longer like John Mahama. We want peace in Ghana. We want Nana Akufo Addo."
Polling was observed as fair in the West African country known for its stable democracy.
However, the political climate soured late Tuesday resulting in 5 people dead and 19 injured in electoral-related violence.
\t On Friday, internet and international calls were cut off across the West African nation in anticipation of the election results, according to locals and international observers in the capital, Conakry.
\t This was the third time that Conde matched-up against Diallo. Before the election, observers raised concerns that an electoral dispute could reignite ethnic tensions between Guinea's largest ethnic groups.
Blanche Kelso Bruce was a US Senator from Mississippi; the first black man to serve a full term in the senate, and the first person born into slavery to preside over the senate. While serving in the senate, he was an advocate for civil rights for blacks, native Americans, Chinese immigrants and former Confederates (as we remember, the radical republicans werent too nice to that group).
After serving in the Senate, Bruce held many government appointments, including Register of the Treasury (appointed by President Garfield), recorder of deeds for DC, and a second term as Register of the Treasury. Bruce was the first African American to be represented on US currency, in the form of his signature as Register of the Treasury.
Register of the Treasury
05/21/1881 through 06/05/1885
and
12/03/1897 through 03/17/1898
Officials and experts are sounding the alarm as Malawi shifts to top campaign gear with giant rallies for an unprecedented presidential re-run despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He said Malawians “will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves” because the disease is “deceptively undramatic until it is too late”.
Malawians will only fully understand the impact once we start to see burial teams and mass graves\" because the disease is \"deceptively undramatic until it is too late
\tPolitical scientist Michael Jana said the bitter power struggle has seen the country throw caution to the wind.
The southern African country will hold polls in just under two months after the Constitutional Court overturned the results of last year’s controversial election, which handed President Peter Mutharika a second term.
Mutharika garnered just 38.5 percent of the May 21 vote but the Constitutional Court annulled the result, citing “grave” and “widespread” irregularities, including the use of correction fluid on ballot papers.
Urban planner Nithya Raman maintained a slim, but solid lead Wednesday, after the release of
The post A struggling incumbent, Ryu, trails challenger Raman in potential 4th District upset appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.
Voters in Seychelles are starting to cast their ballots in the presidential and national assembly elections.
It comes at a crucial time for the nation of 115 islands off East Africa, Voters will decide if President Danny Faure will be elected for the first time after taking over from predecessor James Michel, who resigned.
His People's Party, which has been in power since 1977 also faces an unprecedented challenge
The vote will run across three days across the islands.
Faure is facing two rivals. The main one is Wavel Ramkalawan of the Linyon Democratik Seselwa (Seychelles Democratic Alliance) opposition party, the majority party in parliament after winning 19 of 34 seats in the last election.
He is an Anglican priest and has run for president six times
But the opposition parties have not managed to unite in this election.
The other candidate is Alain St Ange, who was in the opposition before joining the government tourism minister.
He is running for the One Seychelles party which he created a year ago.
The main concern for the voters is the economy, which has slowed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
About 700 people have lost their jobs, according to government figures. The idyllic islands famed for their white beaches are a hub for tourism, particularly with those on their honeymoon.
But the coronavirus pandemic has closed borders, hampering the key tourism industry.
Another key theme of the campaign has been corruption, a largely taboo topic in the tiny country where everyone knows everyone and business and politics are often intertwined.
The Seychelles is classed by Transparency International as being perceived as the least corrupt country in Africa and among the 30 least corrupt in the world.
However it is also a tax paradise housing numerous offshore companies.
CARACAS, (Reuters) - Two-time Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles called for end to an interim government created in 2019 by congress chief Juan Guaido with U.S.
The article Venezuela’s Capriles calls on opposition to shut interim government -report appeared first on Stabroek News.
John Roy Lynch, congressman, soldier, and author was born in Concordia Parish, Louisiana on September 10, 1847 to Patrick Lynch, an Irish immigrant and Catherine White, a slave. Lynch’s father died soon after his birth. Lynch and his mother were then traded to a plantation in Natchez, Mississippi. During the Civil War, Lynch became free when he fled the plantation and to serve as a cook for the 49th Illinois Volunteer Regiment.
During Reconstruction, Lynch joined the Republican Party in Mississippi. After working as assistant secretary for the Republican State Convention, Lynch became the Justice of the Peace in Natchez County, Mississippi. In November 1869 at the age of 22, Lynch was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives. Three years later, in 1872 he was named Speaker of the House.
Later in 1872, Lynch ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. He was elected, winning more than fifty percent of the popular vote. In Congress Lynch was known primarily for his support of a civil rights measure that eventually became the Civil Rights Act of 1875. During his congressional campaign in 1874, Lynch voiced concern for racist white Democrats attacks on black Republicans in Mississippi, a prelude to the bloody Mississippi gubernatorial campaign of 1875 where hundreds of black and white Republicans were killed. Despite those violent tactics which reduced the Republican vote in the state, Lynch managed to be re-elected to Congress in 1874 and 1876. During his third term, however, he was increasingly isolated from the states other political leaders, virtually all of whom were white Democrats. Despite intense opposition from Democrats, Lynch was reelected in 1880. Because the Democrats disputed the election, he fought for over a year (half his term) before Congress finally seated him. During his remaining year in Congress, he continued to support civil rights legislation. Lynch was defeated for re-election in 1882 by Natchez judge Henry S. Van Eaton, a Democrat. He
Shirley Clarke Franklin became Atlanta, Georgia’s first African American female mayor in 2001, as well as the first woman to be a mayor of a major southern city. Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 10, 1945 to parents Eugene Haywood Clarke and Ruth Lyons Clarke. She attended public schools in Philadelphia. In 1963 at the age of 18, Clarke participated in the March on Washington where she saw and was inspired by Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.
Clarke graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1968. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned her masters degree in 1969. Clarke married David McCoy Franklin in 1972. The couple has three adult sons.
After teaching political science at Talladega College in Alabama for nearly a decade, in 1978 Shirley Clarke Franklin was appointed by Mayor Maynard Jackson to the post of Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Atlanta. When Jackson was succeeded by Mayor Andrew Young, she was named Chief Administrative Officer and City Manager. Franklin gained notoriety as one of the officials who helped bring the Olympic Games to Atlanta in 1992.
Nine years later, in 2001, Franklin succeeded two term Mayor Bill Campbell. She capitalized on what many city residents felt was City Halls inattentiveness to neighborhood concerns and the large deficit in the citys budget when she challenged Campbells protégé, Rob Pitts. Franklin also emphasized social welfare issues as she attracted support from the citys women voters. Franklin won a surprise victory, gaining just over 50% of the vote in a hard fought campaign.
After the election Mayor Franklin focused primarily on paying off the enormous city debt. In order to fight the deficit, she cut city spending beginning with her own salary and that of her staff. Despite reducing the deficit she improved city services and hired more police and firefighters. Time Magazine named Franklin one of the five best big-city mayors in 2005.
Later
Cook County’s first Black State’s Attorney silences critics By Erick Johnson Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx won re-election in the General Election Tuesday, November 3, defeating Republican Pat O’Brien in a heated race that eventually vindicated the county’s first Black female prosecutor after a long and tough campaign season. In the early hours of […]
This State Legislator and Mayor was born in Mineola, Texas, to Willie L. Brown, Sr., and Minnie (Boyd) Lewis on March 20, 1934. After migrating to San Francisco, California in 1951, Brown worked as a janitor in order to subsidize his education at San Francisco State University. Upon his arrival in San Francisco, Brown immediately joined the United Methodist Church, which was committed to social action, where he became the youth leader. In his attempts to make the world and himself more “comfortable,” he also participated in the San Francisco civil rights protests in the late 1950s. He earned his bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University in 1955. In 1958, he earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Hastings College Law School.
In the 1950s Brown’s prospects seemed bleak. Most San Francisco law firms barred black attorneys from employment. In addition, Hastings Law School alumni were not heavily recruited because of Bay Area law firms’ preference for Stanford and University of California-Berkeley graduates. In 1959 Brown began his own practice, Brown, Dearman & Smith, after working for a time with prominent San Francisco black attorney Terry Francois. Brown’s new firm specialized in criminal defense, real estate development, and personal injury cases.
While searching for a house, he and his wife, Blanche Vitero, were discriminated against. The Browns, along with some friends, protested and “brought the issue of racism in housing to the forefront of public attention.” Although, the Browns did not buy the house, they were successful on another front—placing the Brown name in the political arena.
In 1962, Brown launched his career in politics in a losing effort against state assemblyman Ed Gaffney. Two years later, he was elected to the California State Assembly from a district that was eighty percent white. In 1974, Brown campaigned to become Speaker of the California Assembly, considered the second most powerful position in the state. Although his first bid failed, in 1980 Willie Brown, Jr., became
The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire Alicia Andrews, Chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, announced Monday that she is running for re-election to the position. In her announcement, Andrews reflected on her accomplishments in her first year and a half helming the Party. “When I was elected, we knew there was sizeable debt that we had […]
President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden went on offense Sunday, with each campaigning in states they are trying... View Article
The post Trump, Biden go on offense in states they’re trying to flip appeared first on TheGrio.
In August 2012, Prime Minister Zenawi died at age 57 after a long illness. Zenawi had been in power since 1995. He is credited with lifting the country out of famine to the point that Ethiopia began exporting food, reducing poverty, increasing economic growth, and improving infrastructure. However, Zenawi was repressive and dictatorial, arresting and imprisoning activists, journalists, and members of the opposition. Relations between the U.S. and Ethiopia improved under Zenawi, with Ethiopia helping the U.S. combat Muslim militants in Africa. The U.S. gives Ethiopia some $800 million in aid annually. Hailemariam Desalegn, the minister of foreign affairs, succeeded Zenawi.
On October 7, 2013, Mulatu Teshome Wirtu became the fourth president of Ethiopia. He previously served as Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Cooperation, Minister of Agriculture, and Speaker of the House of Federation. He also served as the countrys Ambassador to China, Japan and Turkey. He was elected president by Parliament. The vote was unanimous. Mulatu Teshome replaces Girma Wolde-Giorgis who could not seek re-election due to term limits.
In some nations, there is a body or electoral commission that supervises elections, but that is not the situation in the United States. With each state having its own systems and laws for counting votes, vote-counting is still ongoing with people on the edge of their seats hoping to have a clear winner soon. Joe...
The post Get to know the Black candidates who have made history in the 2020 U.S. Election appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
Widespread allegations that President-elect Joe Biden \"stole\" the election are now tinged with unfounded
The post Misinformation channels claim Biden is no longer President-elect. That's not true. appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.
The United States Senate has had ten African-American elected or appointed office holders.[1] The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, which is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. The US Census Bureau defines African Americans as citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.[2] The term is generally used for Americans with at least partial ancestry in any of the original peoples of sub-Saharan Africa. During the founding of the federal government, African Americans were consigned to a status of second-class citizenship or enslaved.[3] No African American served in federal elective office before the ratification in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizens race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Of the ten senators, six were popularly elected (including one that previously had been appointed by his states governor), two were elected by the state legislature prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913 (which provides for the direct election of U.S. Senators by the people of each state), and two were appointed by a state Governor. The 113th United States Congress (2013–15) marked the first time that two African Americans served concurrently in the Senate.[4]
The first two African-American senators represented the state of Mississippi during the Reconstruction Era, following the American Civil War. Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American to serve, was elected by the Mississippi State Legislature to succeed Albert G. Brown, who resigned during the Civil War. Some members of the United States Senate opposed his being seated based on the court case Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) by the Supreme Court of the United States, claiming that Revels did not meet
Ja'Ron Smith, the now-former Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, said his conveniently timed departure from the Trump administration was "planned."
[Monitor] By Simon Peter Emwamu
Every decade, following the decennial census, the state legislatures of the United States are told how many representatives their state will send to the United States House of Representatives. Representation in the House is based on state population and there are a total of 435 representatives, so some states may gain representatives while others lose them. It is the responsibility of each state legislature to redistrict their state into the appropriate numbers of congressional districts.
Since a single party usually controls each state legislature, it is in the best interest of the party in power to redistrict their state so that their party will have more seats in the House than the opposition party. This manipulation of electoral districts is known as gerrymandering. Although illegal, gerrymandering is the process of modifying congressional districts to benefit the party in power.
The term gerrymandering is derived from Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), the governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812. In 1812, Governor Gerry signed a bill into law that redistricted his state to overwhelmingly benefit his party, the Democratic-Republican Party. The opposition party, the Federalists, were quite upset.
One of the congressional districts was shaped very strangely and, as the story goes, one Federalist remarked that the district looked like a salamander. No, said another Federalist, its a gerrymander.
The Boston Weekly Messenger brought the term gerrymander into common usage when it subsequently printed an editorial cartoon that showed the district in question with a monsters head, arms, and tail and named the creature a gerrymander.
Governor Gerry went on to become vice president under James Madison from 1813 until his death a year later.
Gerry was the second vice president to die in office.
Gerrymandering, which had taken place prior to the coinage of the name and continued for many decades thereafter, has been challenged many times in federal courts and has been legislated against. In 1842, the Reapportionment
Democrat Congresswoman Robin Kelly represents Illinois’s 2nd District, which includes Kankakee County and parts of Cook and Will Counties. It includes Chicago’s south suburbs and Southeast Side. Kelly was first elected on April 9, 2013, when the state of Illinois held a special election to fill the vacancy left by Democratic Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s resignation. Kelly won re-election in 2014 and 2016.
Born in New York City, New York, on April 30, 1956, Robin Lynne Kelly is the daughter of a grocer and postal worker. She attended Rhodes Prep High School (NY) where she graduated in 1973. Kelly continued her education at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois where she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1977 and master’s in counseling in 1982. She was awarded her PhD in political science in 2004 from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
Prior to becoming a member of Congress, Kelly was a counselor and community affairs director in Matteson, Illinois, from 1992 to 2006. She joined the Illinois State House of Representatives in 2003 and was chief of staff for Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois State treasurer from 2007–2010. In this position, she was the first African American woman to serve as chief of staff to an elected constitutional statewide officeholder. From 2010 to 2012, Kelly was the Cook County chief administrative officer. She became congresswoman in 2013.
During the 113th Congress (2013–2014), Kelly served on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. During the 114th Congress (2015–2016), she remained on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee where she was ranking member on the Subcommittee on Information Technology and member of the National Security Subcommittee. Kelly also joined the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. At the start of the 115th Congress (2017–2018), Kelly is again a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and
In April 2004 presidential elections, praised by international monitors for their fairness, incumbent Bouteflika won 85% of the vote. Bouteflika stated that his second term would be devoted to solving the three-year-old crisis in the Berber region of Kabylia, freeing women from restrictive family codes, and bringing about “true national reconciliation” caused by the civil war. The countrys dire economic situation has improved slightly, but Algeria still faces a high unemployment rate.
In Oct. 2005, Algerians approved a controversial referendum sponsored by Bouteflika, the Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation, which grants amnesty to all Islamists and military officials involved in the countrys bloody civil war. There is considerable doubt whether reconciliation is possible without holding anyone accountable, and the presidents plan has been referred to as one of amnesia rather than amnesty.
Rebels continued to make gains in loyalist strongholds throughout the country into the fall. By October, they had advanced on Surt, Qaddafis hometown, and captured Bani Walid. The fight for Surt proved to be more challenging for the rebels, with loyalist forces fiercely committed to maintaining control of the city. Both sides suffered significant casualties. On October 20, 2011, the interim government of Libya announced that Qaddafi had been killed by rebel troops in Surt. Initial reports were unclear on the cause of death.
With Qaddafi dead, the interim government could turn its attention to rebuilding the country and setting the stage for elections. The role and influence of Islamists in government and day-to-day life were unknowns for the future of Libya. During the turmoil in Libya, the Islamists became a powerful force in the country. At the very least, they are poised to form a political party, and Islamist leaders signaled that they would participate in the democratic process. In addition, it remained unclear how the many rivalaries in the country—Islamists vs secularist, geographic, inter-tribe, and between the educated elite and tribal population—will affect the political climate in the country. At the same time, there was growing concern about the increased activity of militant groups.
Carolina in the 20th century, Mel Watts is a current member of the United States House of Representatives. Watts was born on August 26, 1945 in the small community of Steele Creek in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and attended high school in Charlotte. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967. Watt was a Phi Beta Kappa and was president of the business honors fraternity. He also has a J.D. degree from Yale University Law School as well as honorary degrees from North Carolina A&T State University, Johnson C. Smith University, Bennett College and Fisk University.
Watt had a varied career before serving in Congress. Between 1971 and 1992 he practiced law with the firm formerly known as Chambers, Stein, Ferguson, and Becton. He was also a small business owner and managed the campaigns of Harvey Gantt for Charlotte City Council, for Mayor of Charlotte and for the United States Senate from North Carolina. Watt also served in the North Carolina Senate from 1985 to 1987. He did not seek a second term, postponing his political activity until his children were high school graduates. Watt was known during his single term as “the conscience of the senate.”
Melvin Watt was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1992 as a Democrat to represent the 12th Congressional District. He is now in his 8th term. Watt is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. In the fall of 2004 he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, a position he held for two years. He is also a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Democratic Study Group, and the Steering Committee. Watt was a cosponsor of the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. In April 2006 Watt was one of five members of Congress arrested in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. as part of a protest of the
With popular frustrations running high, and opposition leader Agathon Rwasa warning that he will not accept a \"stolen\" election, fears are mounting that a contested poll could lead to violence along the lines of what the country saw in 2015, when Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term prompted street protests, a failed coup, a crackdown and the exodus of over 400,000 people.
It now also appears that the EAC will be unable to send an observation team in time for the elections; Burundi's authorities have cited the COVID-19 outbreak as a reason to quarantine the observers for fourteen days upon arrival, though it is unclear whether the decision was genuinely made for legitimate public health reasons, given that the government has otherwise played down the outbreak.
Ruling-party nominee Ndayishimiye and long-time opposition leader Rwasa, who both fought as rebels in Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, are the clear front runners, and emblematic of the former fighters' continued influence in national politics.
They say Nkurunziza, who pushed for the selection of his ally Pascal Nyabenda, the president of the National Assembly (the lower chamber of Burundi's parliament), only agreed to Ndayishimiye's candidacy after intense lobbying by generals.
While Rwasa has announced that he will not allow the election to be \"stolen\", CNDD-FDD officials believe that their party structures and ability to register and mobilise voters across the country cannot but deliver victory.
Mainstream media shops might have declared Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election Saturday however that gainedt cease supporters of President Donald Trump from gathering Sunday for a large…
