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The Origins of Black History Month

The Editors — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:07:55 +0000

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. [...]

Does This Story Sound Familiar?

The Editors — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:17:06 +0000

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.

Newt’s Poor Record on Civil Rights

The Editors — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:01:48 +0000

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.

Romney’s Record on Diversity

The Editors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:06:50 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
To the list of issues on which Mitt Romney has changed positions—gay rights, universal health care and abortion rights—add affirmative action, that byproduct of the civil rights movement.

The Real Right Stuff

The Editors — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:15:24 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
So, it’s clear now what really drives the crowd – or is “mob” a better word?—who show up at Republican Party debates, right?

The GOP Race that Can’t Get Beyond Race

The Editors — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:07:31 +0000

By George E. Curry
The Republican race to become the party’s presidential standard bearer has been increasingly characterized by candidates invoking racist stereotypes.

Does This Guy’s Face Look Familiar?

The Editors — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:01:35 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Mike O’Neal, Speaker of the House for the state of Kansas, came to national attention this week because early in the week he forwarded from his personal e-mail account an e-mail that likened First Lady Michelle Obama to the Dr. Seuss character, the Grinch – because of a photograph of her with windblown hair – and included a sneering reference to her as “Mrs. YoMama.”

Touré’s Inauthentic ‘Post-Blackness’

The Editors — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:43:58 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
For starters, I’ll concede Touré is right about a couple points he makes in his new book, “Who’s Afraid of Pot-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now.” There is no such thing as “authentic” or “legitimate” blackness. African Americans as a people have never empowered anyone to make those judgments.

Excavating Harvard’s Slavery-Connected Past

The Editors — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:16:00 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper Brown University’s daring self-examination of its historical ties to slavery has prompted a second Ivy League school, venerable Harvard University, to do the same. The 2006 report that Brown President Ruth Simmons, “Slavery and Justice,” commissioned found deep connections between the university in Providence, R.I. and slavery and the slave trade. [...]

Cain’s Presidential Bid was Asinine-Nine-Nine

The Editors — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:23:15 +0000

By George E. Curry
Herman Cain’s asinine campaign to become president of the United States is now toast. Not just toast – burnt toast. He officially flamed out Saturday on the heels – or, shall we say, high heels – of yet another woman accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Law Ending Prison-Based Gerrymandering Upheld in NY

The Editors — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:17:57 +0000

New York Supreme Court Justice Eugene Devine upheld New York’s law ending prison-based gerrymandering in the Little v. LATFOR lawsuit.

A New Anthem, Maybe?

The Editors — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:36:07 +0000

By Doug Miller
Just don’t expect a lot of very much poorer minorities to join the choir.

The More Things Change, the More (Some) Things Stay the Same

The Editors — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:09:08 +0000

Related Posts:Hosing Down ProgressRenowned Architect Max Bond Succumbs to CancerChristina Swarns Discusses the Mumia Abu-Jamal CaseWashington Post: Defense lawyer fights racism in death row casesSpring 2010: “The Woman on the Box”

An Education in Care: HBO Documentary Explores One Woman’s Wake Up Call When it Comes to Racial Disparities in Health Care

The Editors — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:44:59 +0000

By Tarice L. S. Gray
In 2011, there were nearly 3 million breast cancer survivors in this country. Dee Dee Ricks is one of them. She's the subject the HBO documentary "The Education of Dee Dee Ricks" which walks us through her treatment and charges that the health care system doesn't play fair.

The Past (Still) Isn’t Past

The Editors — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:52:45 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
It’s been clear for some time that, when it comes to pursuing a harsh crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Alabama state officials are determined to ignore the lesson Arizona came to learn. That is, that the economic consequences of such an action, in fact, indicate how integral these non-citizens are to the many states’ and communities’ viability.

Implicit Bias: A Forum

The Editors — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:59:08 +0000

The September/October newsletter of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council presents a vitally important exchange of views on the much-discussed issue of implicit bias.

An Election Victory for the Cherokee Freedmen

The Editors — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:06:24 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
This time it wasn’t even close. After the back-and-forth over who won the June election for principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, a do-over vote has ousted recent incumbent Chad Smith, who led the campaign to expel nearly all black citizens from the tribe.

Heroes

The Editors — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:29:10 +0000

By The Editors
Hero.

The word is overused. But if one accepts its true definition, then certainly Derrick Bell and the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth did enough during their lives to qualify several times over.

The Perry Camp Names Have Meanings

The Editors — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:00:44 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
“Niggerhead” was far from being the only place in Texas or many other states in the South and North that whites felt driven to dishonor with slurs against black Americans. What that compulsion signified – how profoundly saturated with anti-black racism America was – is the point that stands at the center of this controversy.

Multiculturalism in America: The Struggle for Acceptance Continues

The Editors — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:58:20 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray
The evolution of multiculturalism has not just been about acceptance, but about leveling the playing field.

Paying Lip Service to Equality

The Editors — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:32:06 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The equality-loving – so they say – College Republican club at the University of California at Berkeley yesterday held what they described as a satirical “bake sale” on the storied campus to publicize their opposition to any change in 15-year-old ban against state institutions adopting affirmative action policies.

Obama Finally Gets His Groove Back

The Editors — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:24:49 +0000

By George E. Curry
Facing the worst polling numbers of his administration, an increasingly alienated Democratic base and rigidly uncooperative Republicans, President Obama has junked his Compromiser-in-Chief approach and started calling out members of the GOP who oppose adopting programs that will help revive the economy.

‘The Green Book‘ Juggernaut

The Editors — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:26:06 +0000

By Vern E. Smith
At the final curtain call of another sold-out performance of "The Green Book," Atlanta playwright Calvin Alexander Ramsey's moving two-act drama set in America before the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, veteran Atlanta actor Rob Cleveland, who plays its central character, told the well-integrated Balzer Theater audience: "None of us had ever heard of this book before we started the play.”

Some Get the Benefit of the Doubt; Others, Just the Doubt

The Editors — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:08:20 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Why, after Texas Governor, and Republican Party presidential nomination seeker, Rick Perry, shrugged off his poor college grades before a university audience the other day, has there been nothing but silence from certain quarters?

Governor Martinez’ Family Matters

The Editors — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:19:11 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
New Mexico’s new Republican Governor Susana Martinez has drawn significant national attention not only because she’s the first Latinato hold that high office in the U.S., but also because she’s pushed a hard-line against undocumented immigrants—most of whom, of course, are from Latin America.