Tag: Democrats

It’s a black thing on Capitol Hill

Tracy Martin
Tracy Martin

The father of Trayvon Martin, who was shot in February last year, will give a speech on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as part of a hearing focusing on the societal challenges faced by African American boys and men.

Tracy Martin will speak at the opening of the inaugural hearing of the recently-formed Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys.

Other notable speakers at the event will include president of the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans, David Johns, and Georgetown University Sociology Professor Michael Eric Dyson.

George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder earlier this month after being arrested for shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed.

Tracy Martin spoke to Congressional Democrats on the House judiciary panel last year on racial profiling and hate crimes, according to theHill.com.

The Department of Justice said it is investigating the Zimmerman case to see if any civil rights laws were violated. However, legal experts don’t believe any federal charges will be brought against Zimmerman in the wake of the Florida jury’s verdict. – RT

‘Whiter and more male’

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said the Republican Party “got whiter and more male” while the Democratic caucus is “majority minority and female.”

“Take a good look when the House convenes after this next Congress is sworn in at what our side of the aisle looks like versus what the Republican side looks like. I mean they got whiter and more male, and we now have a majority minority and female Democratic caucus – first time in history,” Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said Wednesday at a discussion hosted by the Emily’s List, a group known for supporting pro-abortion female candidates.

She said when women run for office, “Democrats win.”

“We have to double down in 2014. We’ve got to make sure we recruit more women for office, because It’s not just a slogan that when women run, women win. They do, and when women run, Democrats win,” Wasserman-Schultz said.

The new Congress will consist of 20 women senators and 81 congresswomen – an accomplishment she credited to the efforts of the Emily’s List.

“There is no longer an all-male state legislature anywhere in the country,” she said, adding that “40 percent of the U.S. population now has at least one woman senator.” CNSNews.com