Just a heads up:
The 2016 Brown And Black Democratic Presidential Forum will be broadcast Live on [Monday] January 11th at 7pm CT on FUSION, and broadcast on delay on C-SPAN & IPTV.
The Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum is an element of Urban Dreams’ non-partisan Project V.O.T.E. (Voting Opportunities Through Education). It is the nation’s only presidential forum in which all candidates have the opportunity to answer essential concerns of African-Americans and Latinos. The non-partisan event began in 1984 and has figured prominently in the Iowa caucuses. It is recognized as the oldest continuous minority forum for presidential candidates in America and one of the longest-running presidential forums in the nation.
More from The Des Moines Register
Next week, race relations will be at the forefront of the campaign for the Iowa caucuses, but only Democrats will participate.
The historic Brown & Black Forum will feature Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders talking about issues important to black and Hispanic voters. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Drake University, and it is scheduled to be broadcast live on the Fusion TV channel.
Former state Rep. Wayne Ford organized Iowa’s first presidential candidate forum on minority issues in 1976 and then co-founded the Iowa Brown & Black Forum with Mary Campos in 1984.
Ford said next week’s forum will focus on many of the same issues: immigration, criminal justice reform, economic development, education and health. “Those five areas, I don’t think, ever have changed,” he said.
[...]
People around the country often look down their noses at Iowa’s status in the presidential campaign. A population with more than 90 percent white people can hardly be representative of a more diverse nation, they say.
And yet, Iowa was the third state in the country to dump its ban on interracial marriage in the 1850s. The University of Iowa was the first public university to grant a law degree to an African-American. The Iowa Supreme Court effectively ordered school integration nearly a century before the U.S. Supreme Court. Iowans take a back seat to no one when it comes to caring about racial justice and civil rights.
It’s important for Iowa to facilitate and encourage a robust discussion of race and minority issues during the presidential campaign. That discussion must involve both parties.
I am glad to see that all three of our Democratic candidates will be participating in this forum, especially since a similar forum for Republican candidates, originally scheduled for Dec. 3, was canceled and has not been rescheduled.
Please help spread the word, and I have a favor to ask. Even though I’ve been a member here for 12 years, I really only started posting a lot beginning in July and knowing which tags to use is not one of my strengths. When it comes to diaries like this one, I am often unsure of the proper wording for tags to add to the diary, so for those of you you can edit tags, if you can think of additional tags that would help this get more exposure, please jump right in.