Congressional Black Caucus Urges Federal Reserve to Address Rise in Black Unemployment

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus issued the following statement about the concerning rise in Black unemployment rates across the country:

“Black workers across our country are once again bearing the brunt of an uncertain economy. In recent months, unemployment among Black workers has risen sharply under the economic conditions shaped by policies of the Trump Administration. In November, Black unemployment reached 8.3 percent—the highest level we have seen since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Behind this number are families struggling to make ends meet and communities facing unbearable economic hardship.

“The Congressional Black Caucus believes this moment demands urgent action. To better understand how the Federal Reserve is responding to this crisis, we request a briefing for Members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The Federal Reserve must step in to address this growing unemployment crisis and confront the deep-rooted inequities that continue to leave Black workers behind. Black workers earn about 20 percent less than white workers, a gap that has contributed to a stark racial wealth divide. Today, the median Black family holds just $24,520 in net worth, compared to $250,400 for the median white family. This inequality did not happen by accident and cannot be ignored.

“We are calling on the Federal Reserve to address the crisis impacting Black workers and to develop a clear strategy to reverse these trends and ensure that Black workers and families are not left behind.”

Patricia Smith wins National Book Award for Poetry for ‘The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems’

Patricia Smith, a Princeton professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts, has received a National Book Award, the 2025 award for poetry, for “The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems.”

The prestigious awards from the National Book Foundation celebrate the best literature published in the United States, with one award each for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. Two Princetonians were finalists for the 2025 nonfiction award: professor Yiyun Li, for her memoir “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” and Class of 2005 alumna Julia Ioffe, for “Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy.”

Smith accepted the poetry award in front of a live audience at the 76th annual National Book Award ceremony, held Nov. 19 in New York City. In her speech, she thanked her family and then read a section from a piece about visiting her mother in her last days in a nursing home.

Woven throughout the work — which takes the reader vividly into the room as Smith sits before her mother, who does not recognize her — is the insistent, joyful refrain “What does this have to do with poetry you ask? I’ll tell you.”

The final passage captures her mother’s last moments, and the invitation to look down and see her daughter in this moment, accepting this award:

My mother, Annie Pearl Smith of Aliceville, Alabama, died on March 15, 2024, without saying another word beyond the two that she left me. But I can’t help but smile, thinking of her there in the great unknowable with Gwen and Audre and Wanda and Toni and June looking down and nudging her over and over: “Annie Pearl, Annie Pearl, that’s your baby girl standing there in front of all them folks? Chile, look at where she is!”

“The Intentions of Thunder” includes poems from Smith’s nine collections, as well as new and previously uncollected poems that traverse every facet of life, comfortable and uncomfortable, violent and courageous, quiet and rapturous, encompassing history, current events and the possibilities of the future. In addition to receiving the National Book Award, it was recently named to Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2025: Poetry.

In 2023, Smith was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and in 2021, she received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, an award for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Foundation. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, among many other awards and prizes.

Check out ‘The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems’ here: 'The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems’

Democrats statement on Kennedy Center board renaming Kennedy Center to Trump-Kennedy Center

The board for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that it would now be named the Trump-Kennedy Center.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) — all ex officio members of the Kennedy Center board of trustees — issued a statement panning the move.

“At today’s meeting, a sitting Member of Congress was muted, and participants were prevented from speaking — actions that reflect a troubling lack of transparency and respect for the rule of law. This whole process displays the corruption that permeates the entire Trump Administration, and as ex-officio members of the Kennedy Center Board, we will be unwavering in our commitment to holding this Administration accountable,” it said.

Congressional Black Caucus Statement Celebrating Barbara Rose Johns Statue

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus issued the following statement on the unveiling of the Barbara Rose Johns statue in the U.S. Capital:

“For 111 years, the Commonwealth of Virginia was represented in the U.S. Capitol by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who took up arms against the United States to preserve the brutal institution of slavery. Today, the Commonwealth, and the nation, is celebrating a new chapter in our history by honoring Barbara Rose Johns—a courageous young leader whose fight for educational equity helped pave the way for a more equitable nation.

“At just 16 years old, Barbara Rose Johns organized hundreds of students to walk out of Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville to protest its substandard facilities compared to the neighboring white high school. Her movement ultimately gained the support of the NAACP and became part of the historic Brown v. Board of Education case, which led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional.

“The Congressional Black Caucus, led by the Dean of the Virginia State delegation and CBC member, Congressman Bobby Scott, was honored to celebrate the unveiling of Barbara Rose Johns’ statue — not just as Black history — but as American history. We must continue to honor our nation’s heroes and their contributions that made our country a more perfect union and that too often go unrecognized, unheard and overlooked.”

TEACH-IN WILL DISCUSS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AND FASCISM IN THE U.S.

A teach-in entitled  “The Disastrous Trump Dictatorship & Our Fight To Defeat A Fascist Regime,” will be held Saturday, December 13th, 10:30am at Bethany Baptist Church, 275 West Market Street, Newark, NJ. 

The event is sponsored by the People’s Organization For Progress and the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee, of which POP is a member. 

The guest speakers include Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, professor of constitutional law, attorney, author, and radio show host; Dr Kelly Harris, professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; Virginia Kay, a member of the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee, and Hanif Denny, a member of People’s Organization For Progress. POP chairman Lawrence Hamm will moderate the program. 

“The purpose of this program is to show how the Trump administration is rapidly moving away from the norms of a democratically elected to government and towards that of a dictatorship,” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress stated. 

“Moreover we believe that the Trump administration is behaving like a fascist regime. So, at our program we will be discussing its fascist policies and how we organize to fight back to defeat this racist and fascist regime,” Hamm said. 

The program will open with songs from the Solidarity Singers followed by presentations from the speakers. A significant portion of the program will consist of questions, answers, and discussion between the speakers and the audience. Admission is free. Light refreshments will be served. 

The People’s Organization for progress is an all volunteer grassroots group that works racial, social, economic justice and peace. The multi-issue organization was founded 43 years ago in 1982. 

This is the second teach-in that POP has helped to organize this year. The first one was held on January 11th. The theme was “The Teachings of Martin Luther King vs Trump and Trumpism.”

The Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance Planning Committee is the coordinating body of a coalition of organizations united in their opposition to policies of the Trump administration that was formed earlier this year. 

The coalition initially consisted of 300 organizations that endorsed the Martin Luther March of Resistance held on January 18th. Then last spring, 287 of those organizations endorsed the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance. 

Since then the convention planning committee for the coalition in conjunction with the People’s Organization For Progress helped organize No Kings protests against Trump that were held in June and October, and a John Lewis Good Trouble protest in July. All of these events took place in Newark. 

“Saturday’s teach-in will help prepare people for our upcoming second Martin Luther King March of Resistance. The teach-in will explore many of the issues that we will be marching about next month,” Hamm said. 

The second Martin Luther King March Of Resistance is planned for Monday, January 19, 2026, 12 noon, starting at the MLK Statue at 495 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in Newark. 

Another Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance is scheduled for Saturday, April 25th, and a Million People’s March Against Trump, is being called for Saturday, October 10, 2026 in Newark. 

“I urge everyone who is opposed to the policies of the Trump administration, its attacks on democracy, the growing racist and fascist movement in the U.S. and around the world, and the direction in which this country is going to attend the teach-in,”he said.

For more information about the teach-in or upcoming events contact the People’s Organization For Progress at (973)801-0001.