By Eric V. Copage
One way to create a black canon, I thought, would be to ask accomplished black artists and thinkers which black cultural gem most inspired them, and their personal story of why.

The first person I thought to ask was Nikki Giovanni.

By Jill Nelson
Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the Nigger Breakers is Reed’s fourth book of media criticism. We talked to Reed while he was on the East Coast on a brief tour to promote a book whose publication and scathing critique of racist, corporate controlled media has largely and not surprisingly been ignored by those whom Reed labels the “Jim Crow Media.”

By Annette Dumbach
For some time it’s been a mystery to me why the greatest couple in the 20th century — as a couple and as individuals — have virtually gone down the black hole of memory in the United States.

By Desiree Cooper
My Name is Khan, which tackles the racial profiling of Muslims after September 11, 2001, has broken records for a Bollywood film, grossing more than $19 million worldwide since its Valentine’s Day release, and more than $2 million in its limited release in the United States

By Lee A. Daniels
He had worked on the White House household staff for 34 years – through the presidencies of Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter, before retiring as White House maitre d’, the top butler’s position, two-thirds of the way through the administration of Ronald Reagan.

By The Editors
“These are the lawyers who’ve defined a decade.”

So begins an article in the current issue of the National Law Journal announcing its list of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers.”

By Jelani Cobb
Moscow is a city of contradictions. Some are obvious: streets where 18th century architecture of the tsarist era nestles against staid Soviet-inspired office buildings, which in turn contrast the post Cold War skyscrapers. Others remain below the surface but are no less complex.

By Joseph Bonica
The week of March 15, thousands of Tea Party activists from across the country descended on Capitol Hill for one last coordinated surge against “Obamacare” and to voice opposition against big government.

By Jackie Jones
The National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has expanded the country’s understanding and engagement with the humanities or helped to preserve and expand access to resources in the humanities.

By TaRessa Stovall
Each step I took across the Brooklyn Bridge on a sunny Monday, March 8, brought me closer to survivors whose strength and resilience are as miraculous as they are uplifting. With hundreds of women and men of all colors and ages, we crossed this landmark in unison to pay tribute to women who have survived every atrocity of war and whose lives and stories invite each of us to stand and walk and work for peace.