By George Alexander
Black is sometimes black, and that’s that. Well, maybe. Recent news events have pulled the focus from the economy, healthcare and Iran to the horrible practice of racial profiling. On the positive side, this forces us to examine the notion of black privilege. Just what is it anyway? Does it exist at all?

By George Alexander
Before Beverly. Iman. Tyra. The other Naomi. Before the many other beautiful black women, who have graced the covers of major magazines, there was Naomi Sims. The original. Sims, who died on August 1, after battling cancer, was considered the first black supermodel.

By Lee A. Daniels
Why is it that significant sectors of the mainstream media no longer acknowledge the continued, alarming racial difference in the national unemployment rate?

By Glen Ford
President Obama continues to insist that a rising economic tide will “lift all boats.” But what’s actually rising is a tidal wave of black unemployment that in some regions is already at Depression-era levels and promises to add yet another layer of permanently jobless African Americans.

Cora M. Brown, the first black woman elected to a state senate, is appointed Special General Counsel of the United States Post Office Department.

Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson is born.

The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper is founded.

Madame Lillian Evanti, internationally famed opera singer and founder of the National Negro Opera Company, is born.

Alex Haley, author of Roots and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is born.

Carrie Saxon Perry, the first black woman mayor of a major U.S. city (Hartford, CT), is born.