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Should the Land of the Free Be Open to Cuban Travel?

Today, Americans are free to travel anywhere in the world except Cuba. However, in April President Obama took a bold step by making it easier for Cuban Americans to visit their families in Cuba.

Opinion polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that all U.S. citizens should have the freedom to travel to Cuba. At Port of Harlem, we encourage communication with our Cuban cousins.  Click the Port of Harlem cover on the right to read the cover story from our November 2003 to January 2004 issue, ¡Habani Si!

The opportunity to end the 50-year travel ban now hangs in the balance. If you agree that Americans should have the freedom to visit our Cuban cousins, click here to sign a petition to urge U.S. leaders to give all Americans this freedom.

Limited Copies of the Special Edition are Still Available
The full 32-page special edition of "Our Cuban Cousins" is available for $15 each. (Cover photograph by the late Nestor Hernández.) To make a purchase online click here and follow the steps under “Magazine Advertisement Payment.” (Most of the photographs are in black

and white).

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was biting oratory, in which the speaker told his audience, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."

With the election of Barack Obama as President does these word still hold true? Send us your opinion that we will share with readers in the next Snippets. (Please include your name, and city and state.)

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Click Here to Share Your Thoughts

In less than 300 days, the United States will take its 2010 census and the Caribbean-American community is looking to have a separate count to prove their numbers to advertisers, politicians and others. Currently, most Caribbean-Americans are counted as African-Americans and even with the separate count will probably still be counted as African-Americans, but the Census could then create a sub tally of those of Caribbean descent.

It is too late for the Census Bureau to adjust the Census form. However, one group, CaribID is urging Caribbean-Americans to not just fill out the Census form but to write in their country of origin under question 8 while ticking “No Not Hispanic.” (However, some Caribbean-Americans do also identify as being Hispanic)

Click here to see the video the group created

We have a very forward-thinking, progressive, bold agenda and that’s what we’re working on in terms of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) agenda - but also the president’s agenda - which 99 percent of the time is in sync,” said CBC Chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) in an interview with the NNPA News Service. Lee was speaking of the CBC’s release of its bi-annual report that highlights its agenda and accomplishments. a senator.

Lee was the only one in the U. S. Congress who voted against the authorization of the war against Afghanistan in 2001. She voted against the Obama administration's first supplemental war spending request in May 2009. Obama was a member of the CBC while in the U.S. Senate.

Muslims in Early America

President Obama said in his speech in Egypt, “Islam is part of the American story.’’ The exhibit “Forgotten Roots: Muslims in Early America,” highlights that story in a powerful and insightful way.

The Historical Society of Washington, DC, 801 K Street NW, Washington, DC will exhibit “Forgotten Roots: Muslims in Early America,” through-July 7th.

Our first full color issue's cover model was just 14-years-old when she graced our February - April 2005 cover.  Today, Amari Young of Jacksonville, Florida is an entering freshman at theUniversity of North Florida. The First Coast High School graduate plans to study Forensics.

Photo:  Young at 14 when she graced our first full color issue (top).  Young at 18 (bottom).

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