By The Editors
President Obama is widely expected to sign historic legislation expanding federal hate crime laws to cover attacks against gay men and lesbians.

By Jackie Jones
While the current recession has forced blacks, along with other Americans, to cut back, previous studies have found that when money gets tight, giving to churches often increases because people hope for blessings in return.

By Paula L. Woods
“Young people read comics,” Mandela said in a 2005 speech that launched the autobiographical series on his life. “The hope is that the elementary reading of comics will lead them to the joy of reading good books….If the comic reaches new readers, then the project will have been worthwhile.”

By TaRessa Stovall
The recent “feud” between Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker and the host of NBC’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien achieved at least three things…

By Liz Webster
Thomas McGowan, a Texas exoneree who was released in April 2008, recently had the opportunity to meet the rape victim who had misidentified him nearly a quarter-century before.

Three years ago this week, James Ochoa was freed from a California prison based on evidence of his innocence. Faced with a long sentence if tried and convicted, Ochoa pled guilty in 2005 to an armed robbery and carjacking he didn’t commit. He served 10 months in a California prison before a DNA database search matched evidence from the carjacking to another man, proving Ochoa’s innocence.

By The Editors
John Payton, speaking at one of the nation’s most historic black institutions of higher learning, takes on the challenging question – and assertion – President Obama’s election has inevitably raised: Does that mean the United States of America has become a “post-racial” society?

By Lee A. Daniels
Last month, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), an advocacy group, 400,000 of the long-term unemployed stopped receiving federal benefits. This month another 200,000 are due to be cut off. Unless Congress acts to again extend benefits for the long-term unemployed as it did earlier in the recession, by the end of December a total of 1.3 million of the long-term jobless across the country will be in the same predicament.

By The Editors
Comedian/actor Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, reportedly inspired by his daughter crying and asking him, “Daddy, why don’t I have good hair?” opened last week to great acclaim. Here, a group of black women writers share their varying reactions and responses to the film and their insights into the perpetually controversial topic of the politics and dynamics of hair.

By Doug Miller
While swine flu doesn’t differentiate by skin color or ethnicity, many urban neighborhoods do, and that, according to some preliminary reports, may mean African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately susceptible to the disease.