It’s noon and yet downtown Chester seems shrouded in shadows. On Avenue of the States, which runs perpendicular to City Hall...

“Obama!” “Obama!” “Obama!” The feelings of love and adoration emanating from the crowd were almost tangible. In some ways, backers were releasing pinned-up anger...

“If we ever needed to come together as sisters in America it is now. Our children are in trouble, our schools are in trouble, our marriages are in trouble, our men are in trouble….”

"Fifty-five percent of the union jobs lost were held by African-American workers and Black women accounted for 70 percent of the union jobs lost by women."

"Fifty-five percent of the union jobs lost were held by African-American workers and Black women accounted for 70 percent of the union jobs lost by women."

“Before I only had a few people I could talk politics with and one of them lived out of state. Now, I can call my mom and dad and they’re watching the TV and keeping up with the news and saying, ‘Did you see what they said about Obama today?’” PHILADELPHIA -- Willis Howard had had enough. For months he was forced to live the “Obama experience” vicariously through other crowds in far away cities.

Joe Brown was forced to watch the creeping malaise that infected his town after its steel mill closed down. The factory was the main economic engine of Beaver Falls, Pa.; it was where Brown worked every summer to earn money for college. “It was THE economy in my hometown,” Brown said. “A lot of young people just left; a lot of my family [members] have left.”

Most Democratic officials in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, are firmly in the Hillary Clinton presidential camp. But the party’s most loyal bloc – African-Americans – is of a different mind.

Kweisi Mfume believes in miracles. After all, the former U.S. congressman from Maryland won his first political seat on Baltimore’s City Council by a mere three votes after three recounts and a 33-day waiting period.

Public housing, shelter of last resort for the poorest of the poor, was designed to provide temporary assistance for families regaining their footing and preparing to get back on the road toward realizing the American dream of homeownership.