By Stacey Patton
I’m still grappling with my disappointment with “White People,” the provocative and sobering play written by J.T. Rodgers, which explores the explosive issue of racism in American life.

By David Levering Lewis
February is the month of America’s emancipators. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, emancipator of African-American citizenship, was born February 23, 1868. Du Bois’s eloquent turn-of-the-century meditation, The Souls of Black Folk, explained Americans of color to themselves with a saliency that still inspires and defines them today.

By Lee A. Daniels
Despite its truculent, through-clenched-teeth tone, the New York Post’s editorial of February 20 seeming to apologize – but not really – for its racist cartoon of February 19 is important for one particular reason. It is a reminder of the power of protest – of old-fashioned, civil-rights-era-style, mass-action, out-in-the-streets, disturbing-the-peace and threatening-a-boycott protest.

The first African American to win a Winter Olympics medal, Debi Thomas, is awarded the bronze medal in women’s figure skating.

Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy awards.

Marian Anderson, internationally acclaimed opera star, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson dies after being shot by state police in Marion, Alabama.

Singer Antoine “Fats” Domino is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Theodore “Tiger” Flowers (a.k.a. “The Georgia Deacon”) defeats Harry Greb in New York City, becoming the first black middleweight champion of the world.

Adrienne Mitchell becomes the first black woman to die in combat. She is killed in her military barracks in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War.