African-American members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently held its special inauguration ceremony with new members, a new chairman and a renewed sense of commitment to continue the fight to ensure equality for blacks.

More than 300 people packed the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center's Congressional Auditorium to witness the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's biannual "A Ceremonial Swearing-In" on January 3. The two-hour event attracted spouses and family members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), leaders of national think tanks and corporate leaders, as well.

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who assumed the helm as the chairman of the CBC, said the organization will not be shut out of the national discourse on the economy and other vital issues.

"As the Congressional Black Caucus, we recognize the unique role that we have to play," said Fudge, 60. "We are not just the conscience of the Congress but of the country."

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David Bositis, the senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Northwest, said that despite the CBC's power among Democrats, they will have problems getting their agenda through Congress.

"They are in the political minority in the House and the House is run on a very short rope," Bositis said. "It is a very partisan place and the CBC will be on the losing end of most votes."

Read more at The Washington Informer.

Virginia’s Third District Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott, a Democrat, joined the chorus of Representatives who voted against the recently pass legislation which allowed the Congress and the White House to avoid going over the fiscal cliff on New Year’s Day.

Scott said the legislation would add trillion of dollars to the existing federal deficit and may force legislators to cut the budgets of various social safety net programs supporting the poor and elderly to pay for the continuation of the Bush era tax cuts for people earning below $450,000.

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Not only does the legislation end the Bush era tax cuts for people earning above $450.000 a year, it also ends the federal tax holiday so there will be higher payroll taxes. There will be a delay in the automatic and drastic cuts to social programs or the defense budget for at least two months and it does not raise the debt ceiling, which President Obama wants the Congress to tackle on its next month.

It does extend the federal unemployment insurance for another year for some of the 12 million people still looking for work.

Scott outlined his position, highlighting that it adds some $3.9 trillion dollars to the national deficit.

“So how are we going to pay for all these new tax cuts,” Scott told the New Journal and Guide the day after the House voted to pass the bill.  ”The only option we have is to cut funding for Social Security, Medicaid, education, transportation and defense.”

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Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh, a senior research assistant at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies agrees that restructuring the Social Security and Medicare programs would be an option to bolster fiscal standing, but she does agree with privatizing it.

“I think that the Congressman took a principled plan,” said Leigh. “Once they revisit this issue they should consider raising taxes or changing how Social Security is funded and administered to strengthen it.”

Read more at the New Journal and Guide.

On the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a new book offers a deeply personal and unique look at racism from an unlikely vantage point. In My Black Family, My White Privilege: A White Man's Journey Through the Nation's Racial Minefield, author Michael R. Wenger presents a unique perspective as a Jewish man from New York City who marries an African American woman from the segregated South.

This retrospective work chronicles his 11-year marriage and the evolution of his black family, as well as his work in promoting racial justice, during an historic time of tumult and civil unrest spurred by persistent and widespread racial bias and injustice across the United States.

Mr. Wenger, now a Senior Fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Sociology at The George Washington University, previously served as Deputy Director for Outreach and Program Development for President Clinton's Initiative on Race.

"I have had the privilege of glimpsing a world that is beyond the grasp of most white people, and this book is an attempt to help all of us become more aware of both the pain that well-meaning white Americans inflict on people of color, often without knowing it, and the benefits that await those with the courage to embark on a similar journey," Mr. Wenger said, adding that race continues to divide the nation.

Read more at CNBC.

The National Academy of Social Insurance will hold its 25th annual policy research conference on Thursday, January 31 and Friday, February 1, 2013, in Washington, DC. This year's conference will explore Medicare and Social Security in a Time of Budget Austerity, featuring experts discussing the future of Medicare, Social Security, and other social insurance programs as America continues to feel the effects of financial instability.

Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh will participate in a panel entitled Strengthening Social Security: Adequacy and Equity on Thursday, January 31 from 1:45 to 3:15 PM ET.

For conference information and registration, click the REGISTER button to your right.

During the Congressional Black Caucus legislative week in 2004, there was a fundraising reception held for a young black politician from Chicago who hoped to represent his state in the U.S. Senate. The honorary chairs of the fundraiser were Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.), Artur Davis (D-Ala.) and Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.). They helped raise money for Barack Obama, who went on to win the Illinois Senate seat. We all know how the story ends. In 2008 Obama became the first black president of the United States and in November was elected for a second term.

The young black politicians who helped raise funds for Obama were known as the "the New Breed." They arrived in Washington during the mid- to late 1990s and early 2000s and were part of the hip-hop generation, the generation born between 1965 and 1984. Jackson became a member of Congress in 1995. Ford joined him in the House two years later. In January 2003, Meek and Davis were sworn in. And just two years earlier, in 2001, Kwame Kilpatrick became the youngest mayor of Detroit when he was elected at age 31.

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But what happened to these young men who came into office with such ambition? Unfortunately, their aspirations met reality, Gillespie said.

Ford and Meek, both from political families, ran for Senate in their respective states and lost. Davis, a Harvard graduate and former assistant U.S. attorney, wanted to be the first black governor of Alabama but failed to secure the Democratic nomination in his state.

"The younger generation actually thought that there were greater opportunities for them to be able to act upon their ambition, and because of that they took risks that older black politicians and earlier cohorts of black politicians didn’t take. Unfortunately they [the risks] didn’t pay off," said Gillespie. "In Artur Davis’ case he miscalculated. He took the Obama moment and hoped that it would transfer to success in the Deep South."

The tragic disappointment of Jackson and Kilpatrick is another story. After 17 years in Congress, Jackson resigned from his seat on Nov. 21 to "focus on restoring" his health. Jackson was diagnosed with bipolar II depression this summer. The former congressman remains under federal investigation for misuse of campaign funds. Kilpatrick resigned as mayor of Detroit in 2008 after a corruption trial that included a sexting scandal. He served jail time and is currently in court again facing more corruption charges.

"Jesse Jackson, he wanted to break into the higher level offices that African Americans seldom win -- governor, senator," said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Kwame, he said, "was a young man who didn’t view the world as a potentially dangerous place. I think to some degree, he thought he could pretty much do what he wanted."

Read more at SC Black News.

As the nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama benefited from and expanded his party's enormous advantage among minority voters.

But as he prepares to start his second term, Obama hasn't managed to usher in behind him many Democrats who are minorities to top elected office. Conversely, Republicans — despite their highly limited support among non-Anglo voters — have managed to elevate more top politicians from minority backgrounds.

"It's just an objective, empirical fact that more members of minority groups have done well winning in the Republican Party," says Artur Davis, a former Democratic congressman from Alabama who has switched allegiance to the GOP.

"The Republican Party has proven welcoming to minorities, and its voters will elect minorities as long as those minorities share their worldview, as long as those minorities are conservatives," Davis says.

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Still, reaching the top rungs can be difficult for African-American politicians in particular — because the vast majority of those holding elected office are in the South.

Neither Davis nor Ford was able to win election, and other blacks nominated to statewide posts in the South have done even more poorly.

In addition to the region's conservative nature, in the Deep South, "in terms of statewide elections, there's high racial polarization," says David Bositis, an expert on black politics at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Read more at NPR.

Politics, economics and violence brought the good, bad and ugly to Blacks in America in 2012.

While the re-election of President Barack Obama ranked highest for many among news stories affecting the Black community, people were just as concerned about finances and senseless violence typified by the shooting of a Florida teen, Trayvon Martin.

On the political front, the Black community’s aggressive response and opposition to right wing efforts to suppress their vote impressed Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. He also feels the presidential re-election was a huge event for 2012 and will have major impact in 2013.

“Voter suppression was a big story. In many respects we either stopped it in the courts, stopped it with the Justice Department, stopped it politically, or in most cases, people responded with due passion, saying we will not be prevented from voting. Strong African American voter turnout played a decisive role in many states,” Mr. Morial told The Final Call.

Blacks voted more than any other minority group this year for the first time in history, and may have voted at a higher rate than Whites, according to a recent study (“The Growing Electoral Clout of Blacks Is Driven by Turnout, Not Demographics”) by the Pew Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan group.

In turn, Blacks need President Obama to address the most important issues of joblessness and unemployment, Mr. Morial said. The National Urban League has encouraged President Obama to reintroduce his American Jobs Act, which he introduced in 2011. It aimed to increase jobs without increasing the federal deficit, but was blocked in the Senate, Mr. Morial noted.

“I think it’s too early to predict specifics, but I do think that what we’re trying to do from an Urban League point of view is bring to the president ideas for support and endorsement ... but I also think we’ve got to put pressure on members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to elevate the priority,” Mr. Morial stated.

“It was a very tough environment for a president to be running for re-election. Romney and all those outside groups called him everything, all sorts of smears. But he had a campaign organization and his support was solid among the groups that support him and he was able not just to win, but to win impressively,” noted Dr. David Bositis, senior research fellow at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Read more at The Final Call.

This is a brief review of some of the available evidence on what happened on November 6, 2012. In particular, this review will focus on the re-election of President Barack Obama, the behavior and significance of African American voters in the 2012 elections; and the changing numbers and profile of black candidates for federal office, as well as their performance at the polls.

The latest installment of CNN's docuseries Black in America asked the question "Who Is Black in America?" and examined the issue of colorism: bias based not just on race but also on actual skin color. The news special cited well-documented research confirming that lighter-skinned immigrants earn more than their darker-skinned counterparts. But one topic the special did not explore is whether skin-color bias has a tangible impact on American politics, particularly at the national level.

Are Americans more likely to vote for a minority candidate who is lighter-skinned? The experts we spoke with said it appears so.

David A. Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank specializing in research relating to blacks, said that the numbers speak for themselves. "You can't think of many [black politicians] who are very dark," he noted.

To his point, most elected (as opposed to appointed) black American politicians who have broken a significant barrier have either been extremely light-skinned or part white. Examples include Edward Brooke, the first black senator to be popularly elected; Adam Clayton Powell Jr., New York's first black congressman; Douglas Wilder, the first black governor in the U.S.; and David Dinkins, New York's first black mayor. Then, of course, there is President Barack Obama, who is not as light as the others, but is also not dark -- and whom most Americans are aware is of biracial parentage.

Read more at The Root.

For more than a year, Americans have heard a steady drumbeat about the dangers of the proverbial fiscal cliff from politicians, pundits and others.

When the clock strikes 12 on December 31, we've been told, an economic and financial time bomb will be triggered that will drag the country back into recession, cause stock markets to tumble, unleash another layer of unemployment and saddle middle-class Americans with thousands of dollars of additional taxes each year.

While dramatic, this scenario is unlikely to play out as forecast, said one local economist.

"On January 1, we will have started down a path where a range of people in a wide swath of life will suffer. We're expecting a hatchet on January 1 and everyone will be bleeding but it won't work out that way," said Wilhelmina Leigh, Ph.D., a senior research associate on economic security issues at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Northwest. "I think there are some clear, negative likely implications if we go off the fiscal cliff. Lights wouldn't go off but people may have to burn lights six hours a day and eat two meals instead of three. All the cuts will be spread out over the next decade so you won't see its effects instantly. This might have been done for people to buy time or it might have been the least painful way – if you have to suffer, it's better to spread it out."

Read more at The Washington Informer.