The Department of Labor published a report in 1965 titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” commonly known as the Moynihan Report, named after Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the author. The report condemned the disintegration of the family structure within the poor, black community. It was criticized for “blaming the victim” instead of targeting systematic racism and other societal factors. However, the report became controversial within the black community who, at the time, fought for equal treatment under the law. Still, its legacy remains as supporters refer to it even 50 years after its publication. Stephen Steinberg, a Queens College professor, examined the report’s legacy 50 years after its…
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Conference looks ahead and draws lessons from Civil Rights Movement
The Africana Studies Program and the National Congress of Black Women hosted a symposium reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement as well as ways for black youths to progress in terms of education on Oct. 23 at Rosenthal Library 230. The forum was broken up into two parts. The first half dealt with the issue of affirmative action and voting rights for African-Americans. The second segment focused on providing a unique program for black students. The event began with Evelyn Julmisse, the acting director of the Africana Studies Program, welcoming the audience. She introduced Don Capaldi, a community activist and the liason for Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), who spoke on the…
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Opportunity for all, what students need to know to demand equal rights
The students of Queens College must keep the fire of social justice shining for the future, through activism and knowledge that helps underrepresented groups resist policies that can demean the right to education and economic stability. QC represents the most ethnically and religiously diverse urban area in the world, according to USA Today. This means that the college must fight for the rights of all, as it did during the Freedom Rides of 1964, to show that the murders of Andrew Goodman, a QC anthropology student, Michael Schwerner, a social worker from Manhattan’s Lower East Side and James Chaney, a local Mississippi plasterer’s apprentice, were not in vain. In a…
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QC student organizations lead forum about oppression and protests in Ferguson
The events in Ferguson, Mo. – in which Darren Wilson, a white police officer shot Michael Brown, a young African American teen, to death – became a central theme in a discussion Oct. 15 in Powdermaker Hall. The forum, presented by Students Without Borders, the Ethnic Media Collective and the Queens College Dream Team, began with the introduction on what happened in Ferguson and quickly changed to the subject of institutional racism of police departments around the United States. With 40 students attending and 36 people of color, many expressed different feelings about the oppression that affects them as ethnic minorities. One subject was mass incarceration, specifically how the U.S…
