As America celebrates its 237th birthday, it is hard to imagine the nation’s capital in its infancy, much less as a Southern town that, 20 years before the Civil War, could count more free Blacks than slaves among its 20,000 residents. But that’s the setting for A Snow Storm in August, a riveting account of […]
Author Archives: Ronald A. Taylor
AFRO Editor
Posted inBooks
Hey Cabbie II! Showcases Baltimore Cab Driver’s Wisdom
The best way for a curious stranger to find out about a city is to travel its streets and boulevards, in daylight, on public transportation. Public buses are cheap but noisy and full of distractions. But a wise and knowing cab driver can do more to tutor a newcomer than any other resource. Thaddeus Logan, […]
Posted inNational News
Tight 2012 Presidential Campaign Tilts Decision to Electoral College
President Obama’s re-election bid could benefit from a critical element of the U.S. Constitution—the vote of the Electoral College. For Obama and Republican contender Mitt Romney, as it has been in previous elections, the race is more than just one candidate’s quest to get the nod from a majority of the nation’s 170 million-plus registered […]
Posted inBaltimore News
HBCU ‘Equality’ Lawsuit: Judge Hears Final Arguments
BALTIMORE-The question of whether Maryland perpetuates a system of separate and unequal higher education-after six years of debate, testimony, motions and presentments- is now in the hands of a federal judge in Baltimore. At the end of courtroom action in a landmark suit Oct. 19, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Blake offered little indication of […]
Posted inNational News
Checkmate
The 2012 presidential debate series ended Oct.22 in a clash that veered from foreign policy and war to the U.S. economy and jobs as President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney shared a stage for the final scheduled encounter of the campaign. Most political pollsters and campaign observers declared Obama the winner of the third […]
Posted inNational News
KNOCKOUT!
President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney began the three-week sprint to Election Day with a testy debate Oct. 16 over domestic issues raised by voters, including a question from an undecided Black voter who wondered how the president will help him. “Mr. President, I voted for you in 2008. What have you done or […]
Posted inNational News
Congress to Award Gold Medal to Black U.S Marine Corps Pioneers
(June 24, 2012) A group Black men who in 1941, integrated the U.S. Marine Corps, the Montford Marines, are slated this week to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress bestows on civilians, U.S. Department of Defens officials said. More than 400 of the nearly 20,000 marines—seven of them from Baltimore—who endured that […]
Posted inAfro Briefs
Say ‘Hello’ to the Nice Guy
Often, I’ll see a Facebook or Twitter post from high-caliber Black women about how good Black men are hard to find. In the same breath, these females also dog their last boyfriends and cap the post off with the clichéd phrase, “{N-words} ain’t sh*t.” But these females usually didn’t hold relationships with an average guy. […]