By John Payton
Today provides a moment for reflection on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born 81 years ago on this day. It is also a moment of intense anguish for the survivors and those continuing to suffer in the wake of the tragic earthquake in Haiti.

By Stacey Patton
The use of an old name on the 2010 Census form, scheduled for mailing in March, has sparked some controversy over the past few days. As the U.S. Census Bureau begins the herculean task of counting more than 300 million Americans, it says it wants to heighten awareness and be more inclusive.

By The Editors
Percy Ellis Sutton, a son of Texas and of Harlem whose remarkable achievements in several different fields of endeavor helped fuel the twentieth-century progress of black Americans, was eulogized yesterday as “a role model in living color of what it means to be both great and good.

By Paula Woods
In presenting the true story of the 1995 South African Springbok’s underdog run at the Rugby World Cup, director Eastwood and Morgan Freeman (who stars as Nelson Mandela and served as an executive producer) aim to not only honor the spirit and achievement of Nelson Mandela but also to humanize his drive to reconcile a country torn apart by apartheid and years of violent resistance.

By Paula Woods
This must the year for abused black children in Hollywood movies. First there was Precious, the Lee Daniels-directed megahit, in which a 16-year old Harlem girl rises above illiteracy and multiple forms of parental abuse to reclaim her children and her future. Now there is The Blind Side, in which a 16-year old Memphis boy rises above parental neglect and a low grade point average to discover his innate athleticism and claim his future as a football star for Ole Miss and the Baltimore Ravens.

By Olympia Duhart
Keith Bardwell, the Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry an interracial couple recently, is using some tired, old arguments to support his biased decision.

By C. Nicole Mason
Lately you cannot turn on the television without some version of baby daddy or mama drama played out on talk shows,with black men and women usually at the center of the heated discussion for all the world to see. The fate of children too often hinging on four now infamous words–You are not the father!

By Karen Hunter
An Australian group of doctors calling themselves “The Jackson Jive ” made headlines last week when they corked up and performed a minstrel act as a “tribute” to the late Michael Jackson and his brothers on a reunion special of the Australian TV variety show, Hey, Hey It’s Saturday, which went off the air in 1999.

By Stacey Patton
I had a chance to steal a few moments with former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) President and Director-counsel Theodore M. Shaw after the September 18 symposium on the Supreme Court’s case selection process held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

By Amy L. Alexander
Lost amidst the ear-splitting rhetoric, racist vitriol, and theatrical acting out that has defined the public debate on President Barack Obama’s proposed health care reform bill is a chilling possibility:  The ticking time-bomb that could explode America’s promise once and for all is not trillion dollar deficits or seething white racists or shrinking ice caps, it is overwhelmed people of color in the U.S.