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Coming Soon: The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial

The Editors — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:09:49 +0000

By The Editors Sometime next year Martin Luther King, Jr. will likely become more visible, more available, one might say, to millions more Americans.

AIDS-Ravaged Africa Now Offers Best Hope for the Future

The Editors — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:17:24 +0000

By George E. Curry Medical trials now underway in the very region most ravaged by the virus hold the best prospect of finally controlling the disease for which there is no known cure.

Spike Lee revisits New Orleans in new HBO documentary

The Editors — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:23:32 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray It was five years ago this month Katrina left a historic mess in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The destruction of the hurricane, been called one of the worst natural disasters in American history, was documented by filmmaker Spike Lee in his 2005 Emmy-award winning film "When the Levees Broke: A requiem in four parts.”

Kagan Confirmed As The Nation’s Fourth Female Supreme Court Justice

The Editors — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:35:42 +0000

By The Editors Elena Kagan, the United States Solicitor General and former Dean of Harvard Law School, was confirmed by the Senate Thursday as the nation’s newest Justice of the Supreme Court.

Cartoon: July 30, 2010

The Editors — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:23:52 +0000

By Kevin Eason
Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from NJ. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Kevin’s work features include: TVOne, NABJ, WBLS_107.5FM, EURweb and various newspapers & magazines throughout the country.

The Trouble with Shirley: Race, Power and the Elephant in the Room

The Editors — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:18:54 +0000

By Nicole Mason The trouble with Shirley Sherrod is that she told the truth. In a small town speech before an even smaller NAACP chapter, she grappled publicly with the discomfort of what happens when power and decisions that can impact the lives of ordinary Americans are in the hands of individuals who have traditionally been shut off from power or not had access to resources.

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Kagan Nomination

The Editors — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:37:35 +0000

By The Editors Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Obama’s second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, moved a step closer to confirmation Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send her nomination to the full Senate.

Senate Approves, Finally, Unemployment Extension Benefits

The Editors — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:36:48 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels Breaking a two-months-long partisan deadlock, the Senate Tuesday voted to restore unemployment benefits to the more than 2 million jobless workers who have been out of work for at least six months.

Facing Fears: Many Minorities Need Encouragement to Get in the Swim

The Editors — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:02:40 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray While at a swim meet two weeks ago in Canada, World Record Holder and 2008 US Olympic Swimmer Cullen Jones got some heartbreaking news: Another child of color had drowned in his United States.

Obama Plans to Cut Infections by 25 Percent in 5 Years

The Editors — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:56:01 +0000

By George E. Curry On Tuesday, President Obama issued a report outlining the federal government’s first national HIV/AIDS strategy plan. But AIDS activists worry that the alarming infection rates among African Americans will not be reduced without additional federal spending, better federal coordination and a willingness of people to avoid risky sexual behavior.

Bill Taylor: “A White Guy Like Me”

The Editors — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:00:42 +0000

By William L. Taylor I have had the good fortune to be a participant, not just a spectator, in the enormous social transformations of American life that occurred during the last half of the twentieth century. I see the changes in my everyday life and in the status of people of color, women, and people with disabilities.

Black America’s Perfectly Logical Faith

The Editors — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:14:58 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels The gateway to understanding the optimism blacks feel even in the face of an alarming deterioration of their economic position can be put in one word. Faith.

Beyond Blame – Dealing with Spilt Oil

The Editors — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:03:09 +0000

By Maggie Astor While the brunt of public fury has rightly fallen on BP, quite a bit of blame has been pinned on President Obama as well. This is not entirely surprising, given the time-honored American tradition of blaming the federal government for almost everything. But we could do with a more levelheaded look not only at what Obama can realistically accomplish here, but also at where he fits in the long history of presidential responses to environmental disasters.

Cartoon: July 2, 2010

The Editors — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:00:44 +0000

By Kevin Eason Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from NJ. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Kevin’s work features include: TVOne, NABJ, WBLS_107.5FM, EURweb and various newspapers & magazines throughout the country.

Ending Corporal Punishment Act An Important Step Since ‘Brown v. Board of Education’

The Editors — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:59:44 +0000

By Stacey Patton This past Wednesday, New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy stood at the U.S. Capitol holding up a long wooden paddle as she introduced the “Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act” – a bill that would ban corporal punishment in all public and private schools that receive federal assistance.

Freedom Summer: The Savage Season that Made America a Democracy

The Editors — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:58:22 +0000

By Bruce Watson In the summer of 1964, the civil rights movement was stalled. A decade had passed since the team of attorneys from NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund had won Brown v. Board of Education, yet much of the South was still defying the landmark decision. Bombs, police dogs, and fire hoses had repelled marchers from Birmingham to St. Augustine, Florida. Martin Luther King, Jr. was reaching new heights of eloquence but he could not be everywhere at once. Something startling was needed to revive the movement. That something was Freedom Summer.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Supports the Nomination of Elena Kagan to Supreme Court

The Editors — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:51:54 +0000

With only days until Senate confirmation hearings begin on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) has released a report examining the nominee’s civil rights record.

Justice Denied: Still No Money for Black Farmers Settlement

The Editors — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:35:58 +0000

By The Editors Black farmers’ years of litigation and political lobbying to try to right an egregious wrong endured another frustrating setback Thursday when the Senate once again refused to appropriate the funds necessary to settle their long-decided discrimination lawsuit against the federal government.

Harris County Texas Sends Strong Message to People Who Hit Kids

The Editors — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:16:59 +0000

By Stacey Patton Good news in the battle against corporal punishment in schools! But not everyone, especially some in Houston’s black community, agrees.

Cartoon: June 25, 2010

The Editors — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:28:26 +0000

By Kevin Eason Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and Illustrator from NJ. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Kevin’s work features include: TVOne, NABJ, WBLS_107.5FM, EURweb and various newspapers & magazines throughout the country.

11 Things I Learned Watching the World Cup

The Editors — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:40:42 +0000

By Mark Lassiter If you are stubbornly resisting the temptation to watch, or thinking about attending a viewing party with a group of total strangers who are living and dying with every goal, here are eleven tips from someone who dares you to hold your breath and say the word "goal!!!" for as long as you can hold it.

Soul Food Shiva

The Editors — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:54:16 +0000

By Lisa W. Rosenberg When my father laughed, he’d show his wide, white teeth, wrinkle his broad nose and let loose. I remember the sound of it, rich and soulful, with music in the background—Motown and jazz that he’d play when my parents threw parties. I remember the colors of those big 1970s bashes: bold red and turquoise plaids leaping from scratchy synthetics; paisleys in dizzying shades of orange, pink and purple.

Progressives Converge upon Detroit

The Editors — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:04:01 +0000

By Desiree Cooper There’s going to be another uprising in Detroit this summer, but this one will be a quiet riot. From June 22 – 26, tens of thousands of activists will converge upon Detroit. And this time, it will not to be to vent anger, but to exude positivity

Silent Sisters

The Editors — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:38:55 +0000

By Jill Nelson As a black woman feminist, more often than not to say in public what I actually think about policy or politics, and particularly to challenge the designated roles black women are assigned in this culture, results in being attacked and dismissed as overbearing, demanding, intimidating, emasculating, or in contemporary, all-inclusive jargon, a hater. The sad truth is that too often black men seem most comfortable when black women in the public sphere are silent, long-suffering, old, or all of the above.

Compassionate Ending for Storyteller’s Life

The Editors — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 22:38:25 +0000

By Janet Singleton “If you want to honor her, tell a story,” Keisha Washington told a Denver Post reporter about her aunt, storyteller Opalanga Pugh. For a quarter of a century, as a traditional Griot, she built her life on stories. Written about in publications like the Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor and dubbed a “living legend” by an NBC show, Pugh was among only about 300 people in America who make their livings as fulltime storytellers, according the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.