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By Lee A. Daniels
July’s importance to African-American history underscores the fullness of the history of African Americans in and of itself. It also underscores how profoundly intertwined that history is — right down to the present moment — with the forces and ideals which led to and flowed from the actions of the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
Toward a New View of Muslim Women
By Nura Sediqe
President Obama’s words in his June 4 address in Cairo, Egypt have brought a refreshing change in the rhetoric that is commonly utilized when discussing women and Islam. They were only a few simple lines in a long and extensive speech addressing a variety of pressing policy issues, but for Muslim women like myself, there was a pause….while we were all thinking, “Did he really just say that?”
Genius Burning Brightly: The Unraveling of Gil Scott-Heron
By TaRessa Stovall
The good news: Gil Scott-Heron is alive.
The bad news: Just barely.
BAD—Real Bad—Michael Jackson
By Ralph Richardson
Michael Jackson died yesterday of cardiac arrest. And when he died, I believe a little piece of us died with him. Just like when Kurt Cobain, Tupac and Biggie died tragically. I am completely stunned, completely in shock, and I am completely at a loss for words. I’m sitting here right now, sitting here as the world mourns the loss of a father, a son, a brother and a genius. No matter what they say he was a genius, our genius.
Dear Dad: Men (and a Woman) Pay Tribute
By The Editors
Our call for writings on fathers and fatherhood yielded wise, wonderful and genuinely moving tributes to some of the most thought-provoking and moving facets of having, and sometimes being, a dad.
KIPP: The Power of High Expectations
By Jay Mathews
This year, David Levin and his friend Mike Feinberg are close to becoming the most famous teachers in the country. They have founded the nation’s most successful network of public charter schools, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP).
Innocence Denied
By Stacey Patton
On June 18, the United States Supreme Court ruled that convicts cannot access DNA evidence to try to prove their innocence. Stacey Patton, Senior Editor ofTheDefendersOnline, talked with Peter Neufeld, Co-Director of The Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent further injustice.
36 Children of Color Dead in Chicago
By Stacey Patton
All 36 of these schoolchildren, mostly black and a few Latinos, were killed in the streets of Chicago during the past nine months. They were shot, stabbed, beaten with bats, kicked to death, burned and run over by cars.
Mama, Don’t Be So Mean: A Look at Black Parenting Today
By Eisa Ulen
Yesterday, as I walked with my husband and son to the park, I heard a sister from across the busy Brooklyn street. “Come on!” she yelled and flipped her ponytail. “Sh**!” Two things I knew before even looking her way: 1) This sister was a sister. 2) She was cursing her own child. I looked her way, and in one glance confirmed both assumptions were correct.
Sentencing Disparity: Crack Cocaine v Powder Cocaine
By The Editors
The current federal law mandates far more severe sentences for low-level offenses involving crack cocaine than powder cocaine, even though the former is no more addictive or dangerous than the latter.
45 Years Later: Remembering the Cost of Freedom
By Ashkea Herron McAllister and Caren E. Short
Sunday, June 21, 2009, marks the 45th anniversary of the infamous murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi-James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24. They had joined the “Freedom Summer” initiative of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register blacks in the state to vote. Chaney himself was a black Mississippian. Schwerner and Goodman were Jewish volunteers from New York.
Blame A Black Man, Episode…
By Lee A. Daniels
Sweeten, a blond, white suburban Philadelphia mother of three, briefly drew national attention last week by falsely claiming she and her 9-year-old daughter had been carjacked and abducted by two black men-thus tying her pretend predicament to the most notorious obsession of America’s racist past: the hulking black brute ravishing the virginal white female.
Heart of My Heart: Mothers’ Eye-Views of Love
By The Editors
Tributes to Mom are a Mother’s Day tradition. But we wanted to look at the other side of the coin. We sent out a call for mothers to write about the challenges, joys, heartbeats and lessons of life’s greatest journey.
Is That Your Child? Mothers Talk About Rearing Biracial Children
By Marion Kilson and Florence Ladd
Our new book, Is That Your Child?: Mothers Talk About Rearing Biracial Children, is based on interviews with black and white mothers of biracial children. The book opens with our interview with each other, charts the challenges and rewards of rearing biracial children, and profiles black and white mothers with distinctive biracial parenting experiences. It concludes with suggestions for positive parenting strategies, which are relevant to all varieties of biracial combinations.
A Black Woman’s Perspective: Why Judge Sonia Sotomayor is One of My People
By Mamie-Louise Anderson
She is My People because she soulfully identifies with and is an advocate for the poor and for her beloved Puerto Rico, showing social conscience and sensitivity for the victimized and the willingness to fight for justice and the rule of law, never forgetting what it means to be disenfranchised, cherishing extended family in ways I may never be able to.
Juneteenth: The Actual Day of Freedom
By TaRessa Stovall and Stacey Patton
The ending of U.S. slavery was as complicated as the institution itself.
Though President Abraham Lincoln officially issued the Emancipation Proclamation decreeing that as of New Year’s Day, 1863, slaves in southern states would be freed, not everyone felt bound by that executive order.
A Fun Face?
*Warning: Explicit photographic content may be disturbing*
By Stacey Patton
When I saw news reports of the baker’s “Drunken Negro Head” cookie that he started selling on Martin Luther King Day and in “honor” of President Obama, I was immediately struck by its grotesque familiarly.
The Final Voyage Star Trek’s Racial Legacy
By Martha Southgate
Uhura was the one of the first African-American women on a series who was not a servant of some sort, predating Diahann Carroll’s ‘Julia’ in the independent-black-women-on-TV race by two years. When Nichols considered quitting the show after the 1967 season, Martin Luther King, Jr. asked her to stay, saying that Uhura was an important role model.
The Navy Blue Suit
By Lee A. Daniels
No one came to my father’s funeral service in late July, 1993. Well, not no one. But very few people besides me and my brother, our two sisters, and the six grandchildren. Beyond those of us gathered in sadness at the front of the spacious room of the funeral parlor in Chicago, there were only a few close family friends and aged former colleagues of his. The rest of the room was empty.
The Fear of Too Much Justice
By Stacey Patton
Last week’s Supreme Court ruling, which denies prisoners the constitutional right to post-conviction DNA testing that could prove their innocence, says something bigger about the quality of justice in America.
Supreme Court Ruling Retains Core Provision of the Voting Rights Act
By The Editors
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by seven other Justices, the Court declared that “the historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are undeniable.”
Is This Racist?
Poll# 7 NewWhat’s in a name? Sometimes, more than the creators bargained for. Gazprom, a Russian company, and Nigeria’s state-operated NNPC formed a joint oil and gas venture. They named it Nigaz (pronounced “nye-gaz”). In response, the group “Nigerians No NIgaz,” has formed on FaceBook, saying that Nigaz could be pronounced in a way that might offend black people.
Vote here!
Feature
Teachable Moment: Neo-Slavery
New
By Eric V. Copage
On June 18, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery, the land of the free’s erstwhile “peculiar institution,” and the worst of its aftermath.
Was the apology America’s “Come to Jesus” moment regarding black people?
Feature
Detroit Diaries: Standing Up for Justice at The People’s Summit
New
By Desiree Cooper
The summit, which was held June 15 to 17, and may soon be traveling to a city near you, is a convocation of activists who have watched the bail-out of the financial institutions and the reorganizing of America’s auto industry, while wondering when any of the changes were going to trickle down to the average worker.
Feature
Supreme Court Ruling Creates New Legal Standard That Restricts Equal Employment Opportunity
By The Editors
In a controversial and closely-watched case, Ricci v. DeStefano et al, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in favor of white New Haven firefighters who claimed the city had discriminated against them on racial grounds because it scrapped an officers’ promotion test in which 17 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter met the requirements for promotion. In the test a number of black firefighters passed but none scored high enough to be considered for promotion.
This Week in History
Jun 28 - Jul 4
(1964)
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in schools, public places, and employment.
You throw an anchor into the future you want to build, and you pull yourself along by the chain.
—
Supreme Court Ruling Retains Core Provision of the Voting Rights Act
By The Editors
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by seven other Justices, the Court declared that “the historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are undeniable.”
The Fear of Too Much Justice
By Stacey Patton
Last week’s Supreme Court ruling, which denies prisoners the constitutional right to post-conviction DNA testing that could prove their innocence, says something bigger about the quality of justice in America.
Supreme Court Decision Permits More Aggressive Efforts to Combat Predatory Lending
By The Editors
The U.S. Supreme Court today declared that the nation’s laws banning discrimination in lending can and should be enforced by all levels of government, not just federal agencies.
Supreme Court Ruling Undervalues Equal Educational Opportunity
By The Editors
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), which had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, said in a statement that the Court’s action “is likely to make it more difficult for courts to provide meaningful and lasting remedies for clear violations of federal law.”
A Black Woman’s Perspective: Why Judge Sonia Sotomayor is One of My People
By Mamie-Louise Anderson
She is My People because she soulfully identifies with and is an advocate for the poor and for her beloved Puerto Rico, showing social conscience and sensitivity for the victimized and the willingness to fight for justice and the rule of law, never forgetting what it means to be disenfranchised, cherishing extended family in ways I may never be able to.
Long Live the King: The Coming Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic Must Come Correct
By George Alexander
The upcoming King film has the potential to force us to reexamine his ideas and positions not only in an historical context but to also see their relevance today and for the future of an ever changing and more complex world.
BAD—Real Bad—Michael Jackson
By Ralph Richardson
Michael Jackson died yesterday of cardiac arrest. And when he died, I believe a little piece of us died with him. Just like when Kurt Cobain, Tupac and Biggie died tragically. I am completely stunned, completely in shock, and I am completely at a loss for words. I’m sitting here right now, sitting here as the world mourns the loss of a father, a son, a brother and a genius. No matter what they say he was a genius, our genius.
The Navy Blue Suit
By Lee A. Daniels
No one came to my father’s funeral service in late July, 1993. Well, not no one. But very few people besides me and my brother, our two sisters, and the six grandchildren. Beyond those of us gathered in sadness at the front of the spacious room of the funeral parlor in Chicago, there were only a few close family friends and aged former colleagues of his. The rest of the room was empty.
An Unsettling Peek into the Heart of America’s Darkness—A Review of Danzy Senna’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History
By Pamela Newkirk
Senna’s characters are not the stuff of fiction, but are drawn from her real life. From shards of truths, half-truths, legend, and a searing search into her personal history, Senna reveals a larger truth of America’s character of racial mixing, undue pride and shame, and unreconciled identities.