The San Francisco Unified School District troubled history has plenty to teach us about what is and isn’t working for black students with special needs today.
Some of San Francisco’s African-American families have attended public schools in the city for three generations. Here they share their experiences.
Education reporter Lee Romney set out to explore the systemic inequities that have hampered African-American students in a fast-changing San Francisco.
“A lot of people think that these were poor African Americans moving out, but they were actually middle-class people, because the poor people had nowhere to go," one Georgetown researchers says of the city's rising number of displaced residents.
While many policymakers still think of concentrated poverty as an issue afflicting the nation’s big urban centers, smaller cities are increasingly home to those Americans with the greatest needs and the least resources. Take East St. Louis, for example.
The African American community has been witness to some of the worst health outcomes of any population. Officials at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Watts are trying to remedy that situation by focusing on preventative health.
Looking through health statistics for the United States, there’s an area that almost always shows up in red: Alabama’s Black Belt. A stretch of fertile lands across the southern half of the state, it was one of the most brutal and wealthy parts of the country during the slavery era....
Even though African-Americans are more likely to report major depression, only around 7 percent actually sought treatment, according to a 2011 CDC report. That’s compared to 13.6 percent of the general population. Leila Day of San Francisco's KALW tells the stories behind the numbers.
California's Alameda County is trying a new angle to improve mental health care in black communities by tapping into African-American churches. Once members receive special training, their churches are declared places that can offer support and connect people to resources to find help.
Eight years after journalist Lori Robinson was raped by two men, she published a guidebook for African American survivors of sexual assault and abuse. Since the attack, she has moved on to enjoy a happy, fulfilling life. But on that night 20 years ago, she didn’t know how, or if, she would recover.
