News, White House Report

Empty Houses of Worship, Economic Angst the New Norms

April Ryan
March 23, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes

NAACP CEO & President Derrick Johnson speaks with April Ryan about the current realities of sheltering in place, worry over job and income loss, empty houses of worship, and loneliness and malaise brought on by the coronavirus crisis.

Johnson also asks pivotal questions of the Senate when responding with a national stimulus plan.

The #coronavirus does not discriminate and its impact is disproportionately felt in marginalized and under-resourced communities. We need to protect workers first, not corporations. @NAACP condemns current Senate Coronavirus legislation https://t.co/1UkvLFiZrw
— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) March 23, 2020

Click ▶️ to listen to AURN Washington Bureau Chief April Ryan’s White House Report:

Reverend Janet Cox, a deacon at St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., delivers her sermon from an empty church to home-bound congregants by a livestream broadcast, as city-wide restrictions aimed at controlling the COVID-19 outbreak force people indoors, Sunday March 22, 2020, in New York. “I have never had to speak to empty pews before, but I just had to think of the people out there and imagine they are right here.” New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo is urging people not to ignore social distancing orders and clustering in groups as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

April Ryan has a unique vantage point as the only Black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House, a position she has held with AURN since the Clinton era. Her position as a White House Correspondent has afforded her heightened insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and attendant political struggles of our nation. April has written three books; The Presidency in Black & White: My Close-Up View of Three Presidents and Race in America, At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White, and Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House. Twitter: @aprildryan