By Daryl Michael Scott Reprinted by permission of the Association for The Study of African American Life and History www.asalh.org The story of Black History Month begins in Chicago during the late summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. [...]

LDF filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the United States Supreme Court in Magner v. Gallagher. In Magner, a group of private landlords of low-income housing challenged the City of St. Paul’s practice of selectively targeting them for heightened housing code enforcement. The plaintiffs alleged that this practice increased the costs [...]

By Lee A. Daniels
Peter Applebome’s Feb. 2 column in the New York Times about the decision of the Latino community in East Haven, Connecticut to challenge the campaign of harassment some officers in that city’s police department had mounted against them recalls an anecdote author Patricia Sullivan recounted in her recent, important history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

By Lonnae O’Neal Parker via the Washington Post There’s a steadfast cheeriness to Christina Swarns as she talks rapid fire about the contours of her day. There are the rigors of her end-to-end Manhattan commute, how rarely she dresses like a grown-up and the usual challenges of the professional working mom. But that changes when the conversation [...]

By Lee A. Daniels
Has Barack Obama, who schooled the nation four years ago in how to use the social media to build a political movement just shown us again that he’s ahead of the curve in wedding his political ideals and persona with the new communications technology and thinking to connect with people at an individual level – and, even more important, have them feel they’ve connected with him?

By Kenneth J. Cooper
As a Georgia congressman, Newt Gingrich was no friend of civil rights. He voted against civil rights bills and mouthed the inflammatory arguments of conservative opponents of black progress.

For most of American history, a majority of the black population in this country was prohibited from learning to read or write. Today African Americans are enrolling in higher education in record numbers. Here are some key events that occurred along the way.

By Lee A. Daniels
The racial crisis which last week led to the arrests of four police officers of the small Connecticut town of East Haven deepened Monday as its embattled police chief resigned from office amid word that he could soon be arrested, too, along with more of the department’s officers.

By Lee A. Daniels
President Obama showed again in delivering his State of The Union message that, contrary to the tinny blasts emanating from the Right and despite an economy stacked against him, he’s ready to reprise the star-turn as formidable campaigner that won him the White House in 2008.

By The Editors
Some educational and political observers readily ascribe President Obama’s proposals unveiled Friday to restrain the increasing costs of college-going for students and their families while compelling colleges to improve the “value” of their curricular offerings as more symbolic than substantive – as political theater meant for the campaign trail.