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This week on WURD: National Guard in Chicago, exhausted while Black, the resilience of Black women

Cleopatra Draper is the midday host for WURD's sister station, WVON in Chicago. Draper joined Wake Up With WURD with Solomon Jones to discuss the public response to the deployment of the National Guard and ICE to Chicago. She also weighed in on the current mood in the city and how these actions are impacting the Black community.Dr. McKinley Melton, an associate professor and chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes College, appeared […]

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WURD Radio Honors Founder and Community Leaders at 2025 Gala

WURD Radio marked its annual Founder's Day Gala on Friday, Oct. 3, gathering supporters at the Fairmount Park Horticulture Center to celebrate the station's legacy, honor its founder, and recognize community impact across Philadelphia. The evening served as a tribute to the life and vision of WURD founder Walter P. Lomax Jr., M.D., whose dedication established the state's only Black-owned talk radio station.The event spotlighted the contributions of the 2025 […]

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This week on WURD: Remembering Assata Shakur, Ali Velshi on shutdown and democracy, gridlock in Harrisburg

Ali Velshi, award-winning MSNBC journalist and host of Velshi, joined Wake Up With WURD with Solomon Jones to discuss the looming government shutdown, Donald Trump’s alarming comments about using the military in U.S. cities, and the broader threat of rewriting American history. Velshi also previewed MSNBC’s Live 25 event in New York City. Pam Africa, MOVE member and longtime activist, joined Wake Up With WURD to reflect on the life […]

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The Defenders: Why Black Americans Are the Backbone of American Democracy

By Dr. James Peterson | WURD RadioFrom the brutal bondage of slavery to the barricades of the Civil Rights Movement, from the ballot boxes of Reconstruction to the protest power of Black Lives Matter, Black Americans have cultivated the critical infrastructure of American democracy. Time and again, we have rescued it, resurrected it, and relentlessly defended it.Through centuries of exclusion, terror, and systemic oppression, Black communities have forced this nation to reckon with […]

October 1, 2025

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This week on WURD: Actress Starletta DuPois, Michael Coard’s fight to protect Philadelphia’s Black history, DA Larry Krasner on the National Guard

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner joined Wake Up With WURD with Solomon Jones to discuss the Trump Administration’s deployment of the National Guard in Democratic-led cities, many with Black mayors. Krasner argued that such actions are unconstitutional without a genuine emergency, warning they could pave the way toward dictatorship. He also shared what everyday citizens can do to protect themselves and their communities should the National Guard come to Philadelphia.Dr. […]

September 19, 2025