Durham scientist joins U.S. Senate field in North Carolina
March 3, 2021
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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) A scientist and university administrator announced Wednesday that he ll run for a North Carolina U.S. Senate seat being vacated at the end of 2022 by Republican incumbent Richard Burr.
Richard Watkins Jr. of Durham said he s entering the Senate race in part to ensure “science is represented at the highest levels of our government,” particularly with challenges like climate change and COVID-19. “If we are to tackle the great challenges of tomorrow, then science must lead today, he added.
Watkins joins at least two other Democrats who ve announced their candidacies current state Sen. Jeff Jackson and former state Sen. Erica Smith. Smith finished second in the 2020 Democratic Senate primary to Cal Cunningham. Watkins ran a distant third to U.S. Rep. David Price in a three-candidate Democratic primary in 2018 for Price s 4th District seat.
How Vernon Jordan became a one-of-a-kind Washington presence
Roxanne Roberts, The Washington Post
March 3, 2021
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1of5Vernon Jordan and Ann Dibble Jordan arrive at the White House in 2009 for President Barack Obama s first state dinner.Washington Post photo by Bill O LearyShow MoreShow Less
2of5Vernon Jordan and Cicely Tyson in Washington, D.C., in 1996.Washington Post photo by Craig HerndonShow MoreShow Less
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4of5Cecilia Marshall laughs with Vernon Jordan during a 2003 celebration for a release of a postage stamp honoring her late husband, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.Washington Post photo by Sarah L. VoisinShow MoreShow Less
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Vernon Jordan didn t walk into a room; he entered it. The energy shifted, imperceptibly, as even people who didn t know who he was registered his presence. Then the process of greeting began: His eyes would lock on yours and that infectious smile would fill his face, delighted to discover his favor
Blow: Voter suppression is grand larceny
Charles M. Blow, New York Times
March 3, 2021
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Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won U.S. Senate seats in Georgia this year, and now Republicans there and in other states are pushing a raft of proposed voter restrictions.Jim Watson /AFP /Getty Images
In 1890, Mississippi became one of the first states in the country to call a constitutional convention for the express purpose of writing white supremacy into the DNA of the state.
At the time, a majority of the registered voters in the state were Black men. The lone Black delegate to the convention, Isaiah Montgomery, participated in openly suppressing the voting eligibility of most of those Black men, in the hope that this would reduce the terror, intimidation and hostility that white supremacists aimed at Black people.