Dedrick Muhammad

Black History Month and Women's History Month are often viewed as separate entities. But black women and other women of color know that their economic circumstances are affected by being both a person of color and a woman. Nowhere is this more evident than with respect to wealth (the value...

As we enter the holiday season so much pressure can develop to spend what you don't have and go greater into debt all in the name of "giving." This holiday season let us all give each other support to be financially responsible and engage in wealth building rather than wealth...

This weekend thousands will gather in Washington DC for the official opening of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. The official opening of the memorial was supposed to occur on the anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs where Dr. King gave his famous...

As the country celebrates the unveiling of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and reflects on the historic March on Washington, this is an opportune time to highlight economic justice, a key element of Dr. King's vision for America. In 1960, 1/5th of the country, approximately 39 million...

Last year, on my second day on the job as the new Senior Director of Economic Programs for the NAACP, I went to London with our President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous to attend a conference on Global Youth Employment. Eight months later I, along with the rest of the...

The American Dream of homeownership will be under siege if we take seriously recent government proposals to reform the housing finance market. Government regulators have already taken steps to increase down payments for loans made through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Authority, and are also considering mandatory...

A few weeks ago I attended the United Auto Workers Region 9A 18th Annual Civil Rights Award Recognition dinner in Hartford, Connecticut. The evening was a stirring tribute to the work of those who through their work in labor rights have been advancing civil rights. For most Americans the story...

It is said one has to get outside of Washington DC to get a proper perspective on the nation's problems, but the nation's capital provides plenty of insight into the challenges facing this country. Washington DC, like the country as a whole, is currently on a path of increasing division...

This year's anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington promises to be one of the more memorable in quite some time. The 47th anniversary of an event is usually not one organizers focus on for a big commemoration but in a few weeks thousands will be in the streets...

This year, the world was united in our excitement for the World Cup, and in praise of South Africa being the first host for the games in the continent of Africa. Thirty-two countries would compete and more than a million tourists came to South Africa during the month; visitors from...

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Due to popular demand and for these final days of Black History Month, Mom talks about the repercussions she experienced for challenging the norms of white society and going to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in the mid 1960s.

As we come to the end of this Black history month, I have decided to share some of the lessons taught to me by my first teacher on Black history and the struggles of African Americans in the United States. In the following link, my mother tells of...

For Black History Month, take a look at the digital slide show "Dream Fulfilled? King, the Civil Rights Movement, and Obama's America". It highlights less-remembered aspects of the Civil Rights Movement. It also reviews the racial economic inequality which till today has never been addressed. To see my...

In terms of domestic policy, Barack Obama has had the most successful first year of a presidency since Jimmy Carter. This might seem like damning with faint praise. Although he is not remembered as a very successful president, Carter pushed through important environmental regulation in his first year, such as...

After reading through one of Dr. King's last published and most profound works, Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community, I realized that King's own words says it all concerning the political, socio-economic, and moral crisis represented in Haiti today and represented in racial inequality throughout the world....

Over 40 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, his words still speak to the social conditions that so many Americans face. Our unemployment rate is hovering at 10 percent, and the wealthiest 10 percent of us control over 70 percent of the nation's wealth. Economic inequality remains a...

It is time to move on from the past and embrace the opportunities and challenges that we face this new year: In 2010 the most challenging domestic issue is high unemployment.

In the next month or two the Senate will be considering the "Jobs for Main...

Recently, President Barack Obama hosted a White House Tribal Nations conference with representatives from all 564 federally recognized U.S. tribes. Bringing "about meaningful change for those who had, for too long, been excluded from the American dream," was a driving force behind his presidential bid, Obama said. "And few have...