By Garry Blanson Recently, I learned that several U.S. states are being sued by private prisons, “because the states have failed to maintain the percentage of prisoners agreed upon in the prison contracts.” After watching a short video about the…
Category: Opinions
Our Rich Black Heritage: Caesar Carpentier Antoine
By Garry Blanson Not so long ago, “in most Black communities, in Monroe, Louisiana,” it was the Black churches that served as the main headquarters for voting education, citizenship classes, and voter registration drives within our Black neighborhoods. Regretfully, for…
Our Rich Black Heritage: “Held down by Louisiana Law!”
By Garry Blanson The White Louisiana Bourbon Democrats, the 1898 Louisiana State Constitution, and the Voting Disenfranchisement of Colored Citizens in Louisiana “History is being repeated before our very eyes, and the saddest thing about it is that most of…
Our Rich Black Heritage: The Forgotten Negro Organizers of “The First Official Monroe Chapter of The NAACP”
By Garry Blanson As Black citizens in Monroe, Louisiana, eagerly await the election to “select the NAACP’s next president,” I would like to inform everyone about a few of the “forgotten Negroes who helped make the Monroe Chapter of the…
Our Democracy needs committed people now more than ever
By Marie Brown The importance of strengthening the Ouachita Democratic Party Executive Committee There are times in the life of a community when sitting on the sidelines is no longer an option. I believe we are living in one of…
Our Rich Black Heritage: “The 1978 Landmark Federal Civil Rights Class Action Lawsuit Decision on the Ausberry Versus the City of Monroe Court Case
By Garry Blanson Concerning Voting Rights and Municipal Elections in Monroe, Louisiana” As I am thinking about the City of Monroe and its present system of government, I pause for a moment and ponder about all of the current Black…
Our Rich Black Heritage: The “Human Body Count”
By Garry Blanson Of the number of Negroes and Colored people who were lynched in Monroe, Louisiana, “on the grounds of The Ouachita Parish Courthouse” Please Note — This is Part One of a Two-Part Series. In April of 1939,…