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Posts tagged as “President Joe Biden”

Vice President Kamala Harris Announces Bid for Presidency; Win With Black Women Raises over $1.5M in 3 Hours

Vice President Kamala Harris Announces Bid for Presidency; Win With Black Women Raises over $1.5M in 3 Hours

By goodblacknews on July 22, 2024

After President Joe Biden‘s graceful exit yesterday morning from the race for re-election as the Democratic Presidential nominee, he quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his pick for the top of the ticket.

Yesterday evening, over 44,000 Black women and allies joined a Zoom hosted by winwithblackwomen.org founder and organizer Jotaka Eaddy and raised over $1.5 million for Harris’ newly-minted campaign to secure the nomination.

It took several tries for the majority of participants from all over the U.S. and overseas to join as the Zoom webinar was initially capped at 1,000. Eaddy and other #wwbw organizers made a point to thank Zoom COO Aparna Bawa for stepping in to increase the participant capacity from 1K to over 40K in real time as the overwhelming desire to join this word-of-mouth call to action quickly spread.

Speakers scheduled to appear were Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX) and political strategist Donna Brazile. Others who spoke included former Spelman College President Dr. Johnnetta Cole, journalist and commentator Star Jones, author and influencer Luvvie Ajayi along with reps for HBCUS & the Divine Nine Black sororities and fraternities.

Appreciation for the accomplishments of President Biden during his term (e.g. the $35 price limit on insulin; Ketanji Jackson‘s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, protection and expansion of the Affordable Care Act) was voiced, along with forward-looking strategies for coalitions (Ana Navarro offered energetic support as a Latina ally), fundraising, and turning out the vote.

Within 3 hours #winwithblackwomen raised over $1.5M for the Presidential candidacy of @kamalaharris via a special link shared in the chat that tracked donations generated via this grassroots community.

Let’s go!

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson, GBN Editor-in-Chief
Karine Jean-Pierre to be New White House Press Secretary

Karine Jean-Pierre to be New White House Press Secretary

By goodblacknews on May 5, 2022

Karine Jean-Pierre was appointed by President Joe Biden today as the new White House press secretary, succeeding Jen Psaki, according to nbcnews.com. Jean-Pierre will be the first black woman and the first openly gay person to hold the position.

Jean-Pierre currently serves as the White House’s principal deputy press secretary.

“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people,” the president said in a statement. “Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration.”

To quote nbcnews.com:

Jean-Pierre was born in Haiti and immigrated to the U.S. as a child, growing up in Queens, New York. She has served as deputy press secretary since the start of the administration and has filled in for Psaki behind the White House podium and briefed reporters traveling with the president.

Prior to joining the White House, Jean-Pierre served as chief of staff for vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the 2020 campaign and was the national spokeswoman for MoveOn.org during the 2016 election. She previously worked on both of Barack Obama‘s presidential campaigns.

Jean-Pierre will formally take over as Press Secretary following Psaki’s last day, which will be May 13.

Read more:

 

Taraji P. Henson and Chris Paul to Join President Biden’s HBCU Advisory Board

Taraji P. Henson and Chris Paul to Join President Biden’s HBCU Advisory Board

By goodblacknews on April 8, 2022

Actor and Howard University graduate Taraji P. Henson and former head of the NBA Players Association and NBA star Chris Paul are among the more than a dozen top education leaders, celebrities and athletes President Joe Biden announced he is appointing to his board of advisers on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), the White House said.

The presidents of five HBCUs – Alabama State University, Virginia State University, Norfolk State University in Virginia, Dillard University in New Orleans and Prairie View A&M University in Texas – have also been appointed to the board.

To quote cnn.com:

Biden’s move comes weeks after his administration touted a $2.7 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan that was provided to HBCUs over the past year and as HBCUs continue working to keep campuses safe after dozens received bomb threats in recent months.

The group is made of “qualified and diverse leaders” and appointing them to the board “will allow the administration to build on that financial commitment with continued institutional support,” the White House said.

The 18 appointees will join Tony Allen, the president of Delaware State University, and Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover, who currently serve as chair and vice chair of the board.

HBCUs affected by recent bomb threats will be eligible for federal security grants, as more support for HBCUs has part of Biden’s domestic policy agenda since he ran for president. Last year, Biden proposed increased funding for HBCUs but his full proposal was not passed by Congress.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/31/politics/biden-hbcu-advisory-board-appointees/index.html

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is Nominated by President Biden to Serve on the U.S. Supreme Court

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is Nominated by President Biden to Serve on the U.S. Supreme Court

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been selected by President Joe Biden to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Stephen G. Breyer‘s impending retirement. When confirmed, Jackson will become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court of law.

Jackson, 51, a U.S. appeals court judge in Washington, has been the front runner for the Supreme Court seat ever since Justice Breyer, 83, announced last month he was retiring. Jackson was, fittingly, a Supreme Court law clerk for Breyer.

In addition to being the first Black female justice, Jackson would be the first justice on the Supreme Court to have previously worked as a public defender, something progressive groups, according to the Los Angeles Times, hope will help the court offer a different perspective.

Judge Jackson, who graduated with honors from Harvard Law School,  was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents attended segregated primary schools, then attended historically black colleges and universities. Both started their careers as public school teachers and became leaders and administrators in the Miami-Dade Public School System.

When Judge Jackson was in preschool, her father attended law school. In a 2017 lecture, Judge Jackson traced her love of the law back to sitting next to her father in their apartment as he tackled his law school homework—reading cases and preparing for Socratic questioning—while she undertook her preschool homework—coloring books.

By Lloyd DeGrane via Wikimedia Commons

Judge Jackson stood out as a high achiever throughout her childhood. She was a speech and debate star who was elected “mayor” of Palmetto Junior High and student body president of Miami Palmetto Senior High School.

But like many Black women, Judge Jackson still faced naysayers. When Judge Jackson told her high school guidance counselor she wanted to attend Harvard, the guidance counselor warned that Judge Jackson should not set her “sights so high.”

That did not stop Judge Jackson. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University as an undergraduate, then attended Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Judge Jackson lives with her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, who is a surgeon, and their two daughters, in Washington, DC.

Read more: https://www.whitehouse.gov/kbj/

[Photo: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson via thecrimson.com]

Senate Confirms Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson as National Endowment for the Arts Chair, 1st African American and Mexican American to Lead the NEA

Senate Confirms Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson as National Endowment for the Arts Chair, 1st African American and Mexican American to Lead the NEA

By goodblacknews on December 21, 2021

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson was confirmed by the U.S Senate on Saturday as Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.  Jackson is the first African American and Mexican American to lead the organization.

To quote The Washington Post:

Jackson, 56, earned a doctorate in urban planning from the University of California at Los Angeles, and she’s a professor at Arizona State University and a sought-after speaker on how to embed arts, culture and design into community life. Jackson previously worked at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington.

In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed her to the National Council on the Arts, the panel that advises the endowment. She has served on many boards of arts organizations, including the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Music Center in Los Angeles, where she lives.

President Biden made the historic nomination in October, during National Arts and Humanities Month. At the same time, he nominated Shelly Lowe to be the first Native American to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lowe’s nomination has not been confirmed.

In a statement released by the NEA, Jackson thanked President Biden for the opportunity and said she plans to lead the institution with “dedication to inclusivity, collaboration, and with the recognition that art, culture, and creativity are core to us reaching our full potential as a nation.”

“The NEA plays a crucial role in helping to provide funds and other resources needed for the sector to recover, retool, and reopen,” Jackson also stated. “The agency also has the opportunity and responsibility to deepen and expand its already purposeful efforts to reach communities who have been traditionally underserved.”

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe Receives Medal of Honor 16 Years After Saving Troops from Burning Vehicle in Iraq

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe Receives Medal of Honor 16 Years After Saving Troops from Burning Vehicle in Iraq

By goodblacknews on December 17, 2021

 President Joe Biden awarded three soldiers the Medal of Honor yesterday, including Sgt. First Class Alwyn Cashe, the first Black soldier to receive the award since the Vietnam War, ABC News reported.

Other Black soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan have received high-ranking valor awards, but never the Medal of Honor.

Sgt. Cashe was 35 when he died after rescuing six fellow soldiers and one Iraqi interpreter while under enemy fire after a roadside bomb detonated under the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he was commanding in October 2005, igniting its fuel tank.

After he and another soldier extinguished the flames that had engulfed their driver and pulled him to safety, Cashe’s uniform, which was drenched in gasoline, caught fire.

With second and third-degree burns covering nearly 75% of his body, Sgt. Cashe died from his injuries about three weeks after the attack.

“No soldier is going to be left behind on his watch,” President Biden said at the White House ceremony honoring Cashe and two other troops who saved lives. “A soldier’s soldier, a warrior who literally walked through fire for his troops.”

“We remember the strength and the sacrifices of these military families, caregivers, and survivors,” added the President. “And we remember and renew our sacred obligation to those who served this nation in uniform.”

Shalanda Young Nominated by President Biden to Become White House Budget Director

Shalanda Young Nominated by President Biden to Become White House Budget Director

By goodblacknews on November 24, 2021

President Joe Biden announced yesterday he is nominating Shalanda Young to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. This key administration position has gone unfilled for months, according to washingtonpost.com.

If confirmed by the Senate, Young will become the first Black person to fill the director position. The budget office works with federal agencies to coordinate and oversee the execution of spending programs approved by Congress.

To quote washingtonpost.com:

Young has served as the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget since the spring, but the White House will now tap her to officially lead the office as the administration faces multiplying challenges in implementing its economic agenda.

She must be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the role, but she was confirmed to her current role by a 63-to-37 vote in March with support from more than a dozen Republicans.

Young, a longtime veteran of the House Appropriations Committee staff, has enjoyed broad bipartisan support and the backing of top Democratic leaders. Young went on maternity leave this fall. She would be the first Black woman to lead the office.

“In her eight months as acting director of OMB, she’s continued to impress me and congressional leaders as well,” Biden said in a pre-recorded video announcing the nomination. “Shalanda will not only be a tremendously qualified director, she’ll also be a historic director.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/11/23/white-house-shalanda-young/

Juneteenth Signed into Law as a Federal Holiday

Juneteenth Signed into Law as a Federal Holiday

By goodblacknews on June 17, 2021

Today President Joe Biden signed into law that June 19, best known as “Juneteenth” will now be a U.S. federal holiday, effective immediately.

“Juneteeth” is the term that has been used across centuries to commemorate June 19, 1865, the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, first learned from Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger that the Civil War was over, and they were free by order of the president (Lincoln, who had issued the Emancipation 2 1/2 years earlier). Celebrations occurred every year in Texas on Juneteenth, and later spread across the South as the idea caught on.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is the human resources office for the federal government, tweeted today that most federal employees will observe the new holiday — Juneteenth National Independence Day — on Friday since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.

Biden said signing the legislation into law is one of the greatest honors he will have as president. Vice President Kamala Harris also signed the legislation in her capacity as President of the Senate.

By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, “all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel,” Biden said.

Activist Opal Lee (via marketwatch.com)

Biden also praised the efforts of Opal Lee, 94, an activist who at the age of 89 walked from her home in Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to get Juneteenth named a national holiday.  Biden referred to her as “a grandmother of the movement to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.”

“We Will Never Forget”: Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard’s Tulsa Tribute Anthem Proceeds to Aid Reparations Campaign for Massacre Survivors and Descendants (WATCH)

“We Will Never Forget”: Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard’s Tulsa Tribute Anthem Proceeds to Aid Reparations Campaign for Massacre Survivors and Descendants (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2021

It’s more than fitting that this year’s Black Music Month begins with the release of a tribute anthem honoring the legacy of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 100th anniversary of its purposeful destruction, which was officially acknowledged by President Joe Biden in a speech yesterday.

“We Will Never Forget” is the featured track from LeBron James’ Springhill Company and CNN Documentary film, Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, that premiered on CNN on the centennial anniversary of the Black Wall Street Massacre May 31, 2021.

This soul stirring song recorded by Omarion, Lalah Hathaway and Kierra Sheard, written and produced by Greg Curtis and executive produced by Michelle Le Fleur, honors the families and descendants of the 1921 Greenwood District massacre in Tulsa. 

Proceeds from the single benefit social change grassroots organization Color of Change to aid the social justice movement to end systemic racism and racially motivated violence.

Color of Change currently has a campaign going to demand the Centennial Commission and City of Tulsa give 80% of the $30 million raised to the survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Learn more about it here.

To learn more about Tulsa, read: Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre

or The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

(paid links)

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended to August 15 by Biden Administration; Premiums Decreased

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended to August 15 by Biden Administration; Premiums Decreased

By goodblacknews on March 24, 2021

According to usatoday.com, the Biden administration is extending a special opportunity for people to sign up for government-subsidized health insurance through the federally run marketplace, commonly referred to as as Obamacare.

The special enrollment period will no longer end May 15 but extend to Aug. 15 to give people more time to take advantage of the expanded subsidies included in the recently passed $1.9 trillion stimulus package.

The package increased the subsidies already available to people who don’t receive health insurance from an employer or through a government plan like Medicare or Medicaid.

The package also makes the subsidies newly available for people earning more than four times the federal poverty level, which is about $51,520 for a single person.

Additionally, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, insurance premiums will decrease an average of $50 a month per person, but some people could possibly save several hundred dollars each month. The savings are available starting April 1.

President Joe Biden made the announcement yesterday on the 11th anniversary of the day former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

“[O]n this anniversary, we should remember just how close we have come to losing that act we so fought so hard for,” Biden said during an event in Ohio. “And we have a duty not just to protect it, but to make it better and keep becoming a nation where healthcare is a right for all and not a privilege for a few.”

People who already have insurance through an exchange can either apply the new subsidies to their existing plan to lower their monthly payments or can switch plans. Switching could allow someone to buy a plan with a much lower deductible, with the higher subsidy covering that plan’s higher premium.

To learn more: https://www.healthcare.gov/apply-and-enroll/how-to-apply/

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/23/obamacare-enrollment-period-extended-health-insurance-subsidies/6972257002/