By Mel Gagarin
Yesterday the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a brief, along with several other public-interest law firms and nonprofit foundations, in what is shaping up to be the most important voting rights case to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years.

By Lee A. Daniels
Little more than a year ago, in his slender volume, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win, self-described black conservative Shelby Steele, with glib assurance, told the world that Barack Obama couldn’t possibly win the presidency. That bit of conventional wisdom was released with wonderful timing in January 2008-just as Obama was about to win the Iowa Democratic Caucus, electrifying the political universe and instantly making him the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.

By Stacey Patton
As the epidemic continues to claim lives, leaving behind millions of orphans, Pope Benedict gave assurances to his audience that the Catholic Church is at the forefront of the battle against AIDS. But practicing safe sex through the distribution of condoms along with educating people how to use them is not part of the Vatican’s strategy.

By The Editors
The California Court of Appeals today upheld the Berkeley public schools student assignment plan that aims to create a diverse student population in each of the city’s schools by taking into account the demographic character of the neighborhoods where students live.

By TaRessa Stovall
One cannot consider civil rights in America without paying homage to Constance Baker Motley, who brought her legal brilliance to the most important civil rights cases for 20 years, and became the first African-American woman to serve as a federal judge and in the New York Senate, among other historic milestones.

By The Editors
Dukes v Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, the eight-year-old gender-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the largest civil rights class-action in history, will reach another critical point on March 24 when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on whether the current and former women employees suing the giant discount retailer can legally be called a class.

Thomas Paine’s “African Slavery in America” is published. It is the first article in the United States calling for the emancipation of all slaves and the abolition of slavery.

Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially renames Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, “beloved of Allah.”

Ghana becomes the first sub-Saharan African nation to win its independence.

Martin Luther King, Jr. leads more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators on a march for voting rights from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery.