Twenty Years of Black Agenda Report

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

28 Oct 2026

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October 26, 2019 BAR anniversary celebration and tribute to Bruce Dixon at People's Forum in New York City. Raymond Turner, Margaret Kimberley, Glen Ford, Anthony Monteiro, Nellie Bailey, and Danny Haiphong

Reaching a 20th anniversary for Black Agenda Report is indeed a milestone. But longevity alone is not what makes this publication special to thousands of readers. BAR’s principled journalistic mission remains intact.

The first issue of Black Agenda Report (BAR) was published twenty years ago on October 25, 2006. Twenty years is a long time for an online news site to last. Many have come and gone in the intervening years. But aside from still being in existence, one might ask an important question: What makes Black Agenda Report special? The tagline “News, commentary and analysis from a Black left perspective” was not the result of random word-smithing. It was chosen very deliberately and conveys the commitment to report the news in a way that doesn’t just speak to Black people but provides an understanding of the world from a perspective that clarifies the conditions that they are subjected to, especially how they are impacted by the political system of the United States. The BAR team has always been serious about the word “left” in its Black left perspective. There are numerous examples of BAR’s coverage standing out not just from corporate media but also from independent sites claiming to be “progressive.”

In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led a multinational NATO campaign to destroy the government of Libya. The regime change plot didn’t begin with them. It was the continuation of a decades-long U.S. agenda to destroy secular states in that region that might thwart plans for imperialist hegemony. Ronald Reagan, a man admired by Obama, attacked Libya and attempted to kill President Muammar Gaddafi in 1986. Reagan backed off, his predecessors were satisfied with economic sanctions and other non-military means of attack. But it was Obama, the first Black president, who accomplished the dirty deed, and he did so with hardly a peep from the Congressional Black Caucus or from most of their constituents.

It was BAR that told the truth about Libya. That there were no troops plied with viagra to commit mass rape, as alleged by the U.S. controlled International Criminal Court. It was BAR explaining how Black Libyans were targeted by the jihadists who were used as proxies in every U.S. regime change plan. It was BAR that told the story of the war against African migrants and Black Libyans.

“The assault on Libya has largely devolved into a race war, and the Black soldiers are fighting for survival against the world’s biggest lynch mob, armed to the teeth by the United States and Europe. Where are the people of Tawurgha, the mostly Black Libyan city that was wiped from the face of the earth by the rebels? Many of those who were not killed or captured have clearly made their way to Sirte and Bani Walid, to make a last stand against the racist killers that westerners like Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now! call ‘revolutionaries.’ ”

BAR explained that the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which established a “no-fly zone,” assured the Libyan army’s defeat. It was BAR who condemned China and Russia for their abstention votes, which amounted to voting yes and siding with the U.S. and NATO and their plan for ethnic cleansing.

That perspective applies to domestic as well as international issues. In 2013, the fall of Detroit, Michigan, was complete. Deindustrialization engineered by finance capital, whites and their money fleeing to suburban counties, and the coup de grace, theft from a bank derivatives scheme, forced the city into bankruptcy. While corporate media repeated racist narratives alleging corruption and mismanagement on the part of Black officials, Black Agenda Report led the way in reporting Detroit’s reality. Glen Ford explained in an article entitled, Who Sank Detroit - the Hip Hop Mayor or Wall Street?

“In the twisted world of finance-dominated, late-stage capitalism, the 2005 ultra-complex interest rates swap-plus-loans monstrosity that [Mayor] Kilpatrick arranged with Wall Street banks was perfectly legal – as is the convoluted derivatives scheme that Emergency Financial Manager Kevyn Orr plans to submit to a bankruptcy court on behalf of Detroit’s unwilling residents, next week – a formula for the banks to swallow Detroit’s assets whole.”

Black Agenda Report was unique in telling the real story of Detroit. But again, that accuracy was not accidental; it was the very reason for this site’s existence.

The destruction of Libya and of Detroit both took place during the Obama administration. It was BAR that called Obama not the lesser evil, but the more effective evil. Obama followed in the footsteps of his predecessors in regime change and austerity and bailing out the banks, which caused misery all over the world. He made clear in the autumn of 2008, before he was elected, that he would deliver for the people who created the great recession and would use the Federal Reserve to dole out trillions of dollars to aid them. Obama put Social Security and Medicare safety net programs on the chopping block, and the people were only saved by republicans’ intransigence. It was Obama who said little when Black people took to the streets in anger over police killings. It was Obama who said that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin, but then demurred on a federal prosecution of his killer.

Obama expected to be succeeded by Hillary Clinton. But her arrogance and inability to fool enough people like Obama had done prevented her from carrying out a sufficient get-out-the-vote effort, and instead it was Donald Trump who was the next white house resident. But Obama didn’t leave without a fight. He claimed that internet “misinformation” was the cause of her defeat and the corporate media, spokespeople for the state, declared that Black Agenda Report and other sites were acting as propaganda agents of Russia. The Washington Post did its job by amplifying the anonymous group Propaganda Or Not but BAR didn’t shrink from being included on what was a list of truly independent media, and was proud to be the only Black outlet so named.

There was no consternation among the editorial team when BAR was included on the Propaganda Or Not list. Of course censorship followed, with BAR and other leftist sites losing access to internet searches. Bruce Dixon reported, “Convincing evidence has emerged that Google is actively suppressing public access to at least a dozen left wing sites, very likely including Black Agenda Report by algorithms which game the keyword search results it presents to users.” No matter. Black Agenda Report remained true to its mission even when others changed their politics due to opportunism and misguided notions of racial solidarity.

Black Agenda Report had the courage to be the first to critique Obama and did so when most of our own people wanted to hear nothing but praise. The Black moral compass was badly damaged, as Bruce Dixon said. “The genius of Barack Obama's career is that it has used modern marketing techniques to package the aroma of an imagined popular grassroots movement in the service of a corporate candidate with a thoroughgoing corporate agenda.” That agenda is one that is always harmful to Black people, and the agenda of this publication is to say so as long as we need to.

There are endless examples of BAR standing fast with people around the world. When corporate media referred to the Horn of Africa nation Eritrea and called it the “North Korea of Africa” and, in so doing, lied about both countries, BAR explained the simple truth. Eritrea strives for true independence; it wants nothing to do with the U.S., Africa Command (AFRICOM), or with the World Bank. Its economy has suffered from sanctions, and it is depicted as an autocracy when it is more democratic than U.S. friends in that region. Black Agenda Report still covers Eritrea in a way that no other site does.

Glen Ford and Bruce Dixon have both passed on, but they were the driving forces behind this publication for many years. Now, as Executive Editor, and with contributing editors Jemima Pierre and Ajamu Baraka, and with a group of dedicated contributors such as Ann Garrison, Roberto Sirvent, Raymond Turner, Anthony Rogers-Wright, and others, Black Agenda Report still provides news commentary and analysis from a Black left perspective.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.