What issues do you hope legislators prioritize at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) Annual Legislative Conference this week?
Phil Pannell, Ward 8 community activist
“D.C. statehood, because after all it is not only a civil rights issue, but it is a social justice issue because if D.C. were a state, we would have the highest percentage of African Americans represented.”
Julius Rosenwald Ware II, safety consultant on mission critical projects
“As an electrician, there was a time when people looked down on blue-collar workers and those of us in the building trades, but in the age of AI, we need more than half a million people in construction, and not enough are trained to work. I would tell my congressmen we need more focus on workforce development and pre-apprentice programs. As a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and 100 Black of Prince George’s County, we have a special interest in workforce development.”
Dr. Cherie Ward, director of the Archbishop Carroll Jim Vance Media Program and an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia
“I think one of the most important issues in education and higher education, specifically, is the ethical use of AI. AI was once seen as a threat to critical thinking for students. However, technology has changed that dynamic. Critical thinking is now seen as the prompts that students put into AI to get the desired information. AI is not the enemy. How students use it ethically should be at the forefront of the conversation. What is ethics with technology? Are students copying and pasting?… Or are they using it as a tool and a resource for information and then adding their voice to it? That is an issue that is important not only in high schools and elementary schools, but higher education.”
Sam Ford, retired broadcast journalist
“The CBC should focus on what the Supreme Court did to them: They robbed the Black Caucus of its power basically by gerrymandering their Districts across the country. I have a [parody] photo of members of the Supreme Court raising the Confederate flag at Iwo Jima. Chief Justice Robert B. Taney said, ‘the Negro had no rights that white men were bound to respect.’”
Dr. Glenda Glover, former president of Tennessee State University and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
“Will the states finally be mandated to correct the massive underfunding of HBCUs — and pay the billions of dollars they owe to land‑grant universities when compared to their white counterpart institutions? That is the prevailing question the Congressional Black Caucus must address this year. For decades, states have owed these institutions billions in underfunding, despite clear requirements in the Morrill Act and other federal legislation. The disparities are documented, longstanding, and rooted in inequitable state appropriations.”
Compiled by Hamil R. Harris
