Portside

Conyers fought for gun control, anti-poverty programs and universal health care. He held hearings to spotlight police misconduct and also supported legislation urging a study of the possibility of offering reparations to the descendants of slaves.

If Republicans won’t engage in oversight now, when will they?

Rep. John Conyers wanted to block U.S. funding to neo-Nazis in Ukraine. But the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center refused to help.

The Full Employment Caucus is formed amidst a cry for the President to address growing income inequality and as Democrats in Congress push for an increase to the federal minimum wage.

Incredibly, when King called for full employment in 1967, the national unemployment rate was under 4 percent. Flash forward to today: 56 consecutive months of unemployment above 7 percent, among African Americans above 13 percent, above 9 percent among Latinos. At our current rate of job creation, it would take another seven years to get the national unemployment rate down to 5 percent, where it was at the end of 2007.

Act would boost employment now for the many who need it, eliminate residual joblessness even in times of prosperity.