Detroit, MI – When you hail from the Motor City with a grandmother who sang the blues, and a cousin who was one of the original Motown Temptations, music just kind of rests in your spirit and organically becomes who you are. Pianist, singer, songwriter and producer, Reggie Braxton has aptly honed such impactful melodious […]
Kirk Clay
A Balanced Viable Plan to Create Opportunity for All
By Kirk Clay – Evidence based civic engagement is a fairly nascent field. In fact, up until 20 years ago what people now think of as civic engagement for “people of color” was characterized naively as just minority outreach. Therefore, it’s no wonder that many organizations and efforts struggle to identify what an effective civic […]
Micro-Targeting the Heartland – Analyzing Ohio’s Voters and Making Final Four Predictions
by Kirk Clay – I have to admit, I love it when the March Madness season comes around. There is something about completing bracket sheets for both the Women’s and Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments and developing a strategy for my favorite teams to go all the way. The best part is identifying all of the […]
We Need Cooperation, Not Polarization – by Kirk Clay
As Super Tuesday becomes the focal point of this election season and speculation continues over whether the GOP will have a clear front runner by next Wednesday, my attention turns toward Georgia. Not because of the obvious reasons, but because of what the proverbial “Promised Land” represents for Voters of Color (VOC). Although 2010 census […]
Political Geography May Impact Presidential Race – by Kirk Clay
While in Atlanta to speak on civil rights strategies for redistricting I visited friends who work in the hip-hop community. We began to talk about the implications that the dramatic population shifts will have on voting patterns in 2012. I cited the fact that based on the Census 2010 data confirmed that it is possible […]
Gridlock in Congress Enables Continuation of Racially and Economically Biased Education Initiatives By Kirk Clay
Washington, DC – This week the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce held yet another hearing about the No Child Left Behind Act. As Congress continues their never-ending debate about the perils of NCLB, two education initiatives that disproportionately and negatively impact the poor and people of color, are about to be overlooked […]
PAY ATTENTION: Redistricting Strategies Impact Local and National Elections
By Kirk Clay and Madura Wijewardena – State houses, city councils and many other institutions across America are now engaged in an endeavor that has occurred every decade since the nation’s founding — they will decide how electoral boundaries will be drawn based on where people live. These decisions will have a major impact on […]