WATCH : Global Stage @ the UN: Reimagining Tomorrow: Breakthroughs in Data and AI
Scroll to the top

{{ subpage.title }}

Activists descend on Washington, DC, to mark the 60th anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech.

Riley Calanan

The March on Washington, 60 years later

Sixty years ago on Monday, over a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington, DC, for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a century after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,” galvanizing supporters of the Civil Rights Movement.

The march was initially conceived 20 years prior by labor leader Philip Randolph when African Americans were excluded from the job creation programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. By the late 1950s, with the Civil Rights Act stalled in Congress, Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were also planning to march on Washington for freedom.

Read moreShow less
Clarence Page: Why Black voting rights matter
Clarence Page: Why Black Voting Rights Matter | GZERO World

Clarence Page: Why Black voting rights matter

When the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page had just finished high school.

This legislation changed the lives of Black people in America because Jim Crow laws had virtually prevented Blacks from voting in the South with impossible poll questions and literacy tests, he said in an interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

Read moreShow less

The Graphic Truth: Black immigrants in the US

One in 10 Black Americans was born overseas, up by 3 percentage points since 2000. By 2050, the US Census Bureau estimates that immigrants will make up 15% percent of the Black population in America. The data shows that national origin reflects differing education and average household wealth levels. We look at a few data points distinguishing US- and foreign-born Black Americans.

Critical race theory and Black voting rights
Critical Race Theory and Black Voting Rights | GZERO World

Critical race theory and Black voting rights

Did conservative backlash against critical race theory influence Republican-led US states to pass new voting laws restricting Black Americans' access to the ballot box?

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page thinks so, to a certain extent, he tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

Read moreShow less
Black voter suppression in 2022
Black Voter Suppression in 2022 | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Black voter suppression in 2022

Until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Black people in America who wanted to vote faced impossible poll questions and literacy tests. But the Supreme Court gutted the law in 2013, allowing states to pass new voting legislation that progressives say restrict Black access to the ballot box.

The 2022 midterm elections will be the first major test of these laws — which Democrats in Congress are unlikely to be able to stop. How will this all affect Black turnout in November?

On this episode of GZERO World, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page tells Ian Bremmer that if Trump loyalists win in key states, their legislatures — not voters — may end up deciding the next US presidential race.What may happen in 2024 reminds him of 1876, when Page says the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War, along with a disputed presidential election, ushered in the Jim Crow laws that ended his ancestors' ability to vote in Alabama.

Read moreShow less

Podcast: It’s getting harder for Black Americans to vote, warns journalist Clarence Page

Transcript

Listen: Voter suppression is a front and center issue. But it’s not always black and white…or red and blue. Black voters continue to turn out in smaller numbers than white voters. How much of that is due to conscious efforts to make voting harder? Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast to discuss the past and future of the struggle for Black voting rights in America. Page warns that if Trump loyalists win in key states, their legislatures — not voters — may end up deciding the next US presidential race.

Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
The history of Black voting rights in America
The History of Black Voting Rights in America | GZERO World

The history of Black voting rights in America

Until 1965, Black Americans who wanted to vote first faced faces unanswerable poll questions, and later equally tough literacy tests.

The Voting Rights Act banned these and other forms of overt voter suppression. But in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the law, requiring states to get prior federal approval to tweak their voting laws for racial discrimination.

Read moreShow less
The 1619 Project’s creator Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses its cultural impact
The 1619 Project’s Creator Nikole Hannah-Jones Discusses Its Cultural Impact | GZERO World

The 1619 Project’s creator Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses its cultural impact

Today, we take a fresh look at US history—and the role Black people have played in it—with a woman who is reshaping that national conversation. When Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones published the “1619 Project” in 2019, not even she could have predicted its cultural impact. It’s hard to think of another piece of modern journalism that has garnered such praise while also sparking such intense outrage. Now, her new book, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, expands upon her initial work. She joins Ian Bremmer for an in-depth look at how she’s trying to reshape US history, and the backlash it has caused.

Read moreShow less

Subscribe to our free newsletter, GZERO Daily

Latest