Last night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel uptown, Bill and Hillary Clinton paid tribute to Reverend Calvin Butts, III, who presides over the congregation at one the most prestigious black churches in the city. He also endorsed Clinton over Barack Obama during the Democratic presidential primary.
In a speech today at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.served as pastor, Barack Obama talked about the existence of institutional racism, the sensationalizing of race "by the media" and the creeping of race as an issue into the presidential campaign.
But Obama’s speech will likely be remembered for his calling Read More
Reverend Dr. Calvin Butts announced his long-assumed endorsement of Hillary Clinton in front of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Clinton had honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. earlier this afternoon.
In endorsing Clinton, Butts read a long statement emphasizing his strong relationship with Clinton and his high regard for her experience. (“I, too, join countless Read More
At a panel discussion last night on development in the city, multiple community organizers and the Reverend Calvin Butts, pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, criticized the process of forming community benefits agreements (CBAs) in order to bolster public and governmental support for large development projects.
The tool seems to be a technique Read More
"She is no stranger here," said Calvin Butts, the Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where a "homecoming" rally was held for Hillary Clinton on Saturday.
In a very specific way, at least, the origins of Clinton’s Senate career can be traced back to the 125th Street offices of Charlie Rangel, who, Clinton Read More
Tomorrow, on the day Sean Bell’s daughter turns four years old, Rev. Al Sharpton and others will silently march down Fifth Avenue to protest police misconduct in minority communities and press City Hall to implement changes they say were supposed to be in place after the killing of Amadou Diallo.
Sharpton said everything from Read More
Big L keeps it real
Panel discussions aren’t always our kind of thing, but tomorrow night the estimable Leonard Lopate (WNYC, y’all!) hosts a very promising symposium on “The Role of the Arts in the Future of Harlem.”
Why so promising? The choreographer Bill T. Jones will be there, hangout out with the powerful Read More
The Daily News reports that Mark Green got the nod from Rev. Calvin Butts. And Ben Smith writes that both parties are vying for the support of the Mayor.
The Post reports that Republicans have abandoned hope that Tom Suozzi will help them in defeating Eliot Spitzer.
And the Times writes about Read More
Sorry to harp on this, but another point on the claim in the Times this morning that the Bloomberg campaign targeted not traditional demographics but “thought-based” groups:
Which thought-based group, exactly, was the target of a widely mailed flyer, colored in the green, yellow, and red associated with Africa, that was headed by the Read More
With millions of dollars and the promise of a Harlem economic renaissance at stake, the Giuliani administration is attempting to freeze out one of the neighborhood’s most powerful clerics, the Rev. Calvin Butts, and a not-for-profit corporation controlled by his church, Abyssinian Baptist, from participation in government-aided development projects.
Sources told The Observer that City Read More
