Author Archives: Adrienne T. Washington

Monday’s shooting rampage at the Navy Yard, when 13 people and the alleged gunman, Aaron Alexis of Ft. Worth, Texas, were killed, was yet another a stark and painful reminder for those of us who live, work and play in the “DMV” region that we live at Ground Zero and tragedy can strike without whisper […]

Now what? Now that the marching is over, the fond memories relived and a king’s dream revived, how to generate and sustain a renewed movement for justice, jobs and freedom? This is the burning question facing African Americans today who must turn fondness for the past into faith and action for the future. “I don’t […]

When she was a couple of months shy of 16, Lea Adams ’s father, Joel, a rare African American who carried the rank of U.S. Army colonel, took her to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1988, as a single parent, she took her 11-year-old son, Joel II, to the 25th […]

“I’m just an old historian who only wants one thing, the truth,” said preeminent African and African American historian Carroll “CR” Gibbs, “fussing” with a somewhat heavy heart. I couldn’t wait to catch up this commemorative week with “CR” or “Brother Gibbs,” as I call him – following his lead whereby he refers to those […]

From the statehouses of Florida and North Carolina to the highways, streets, drives, boulevards, ways, courts and other roadways named after Dr. Martin Luther King, this summer has witnessed a resurgence of African American protests and civic action. Sometimes it’s a group, like the student-led sit-in at the Florida capitol lobbying against unjust laws; more […]

Whatever you do, “don’t even think about going down that road of comparing me to Nelson Mandela,” says a humble Ferdinand T. Day, a lifelong civil rights advocate, even if they are “men of a certain generation.” He actually chuckles at the very suggestion. Day spoke to the AFRO on the eve of his 95th birthday, […]

Is it any wonder that hundreds of fast food workers across the country this week are walking out and striking at their jobs demanding to form a union and to have their wages increased to as much as $15 an hour? From California to New York their chant can be heard: “We can’t survive on […]

Had to do a dyslexic double-take after seeing the photo of three little black boys holding up sings with that gut-wrenching Tupac lyric, “Am I Next,” during a weekend protest rally, as I was trying to digest all the Internet twitter following George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black Florida […]

The family of Trayvon Martin not only lost their 17-year-old son at the hands of George Zimmerman, a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer. They could lose their money to him, too. Imagine this bitter irony: Under Florida’s stand your ground law, according to legal experts contacted by the AFRO, if the Martin’s family files a civil […]

On a bright, blazing Sunday morning with the lush green hills, thatched roofs and red clay roads snaking through the Royal Ezulwini Valley of region of Swaziland like a picture perfect postcard, a delegation of Delta Sigma Theta sorority members and guests were immediately moved to dig in their red purses to raise enough money […]

Author James Baldwin said: “It is not the black child’s language that is in question, it is not their language that is despised. It is their experience.” This telling quotation about the racial divide in America is rotating around the cyberspace circuit in reaction to the crass criticism being hurled at Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old […]

Here’s the dry rub about the whole celebrity cook Paula Deen BBQ: it’s really no great shock that a Low Country Southern woman of a certain age once used the “N-word,” or maybe still does privately on occasion. To keep it real, too many African Americans disparage their own with that painful racial moniker all […]