Author Archives: Zenitha Prince

Washington, D.C., power players put aside their rivalries Feb. 27 to unveil a statue of Rosa Parks in its permanent home on Capitol Hill. The full length sculpture, featuring a seated Parks with her hair tucked under a hat, legs and arms crossed and her hand clasping a purse, is the first of a Black […]

The U.S. Census Bureau is removing from agency forms the term Negro, after more than a century of use, to describe Black Americans in its surveys. Beginning next year, when the bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, all census forms will use the more modern terms of […]

After walking a gauntlet of Republican criticism, former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel was confirmed as the Obama administration’s secretary of defense Feb. 26. Hagel’s former colleagues voted 58-41 to approve the White House’s nominee to replace departing Pentagon chief Leon Panetta. President Obama praised Hagel as “an American patriot who fought and bled for our […]

Civil rights groups commemorated the slaying a year ago of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, whose shooting death sparked a national campaign that highlighted issues of racial profiling, the inequity and questionable application of Stand Your Ground laws, devaluation of Black victims by law enforcement and the prevalence of gun violence. One year ago, Feb. 26, Trayvon […]

To most, “The Sequester,” an $85 billion package of automatic government spending cuts that goes into effect March 1, is a done deal. Less than 24 hours before the scythe-like budget reductions go into effect, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have shown little-to-no willingness to reach a compromise, putting many Americans in peril. “I think it […]

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be on trial again when the United States Supreme Court on Feb. 27 hears Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, a case that challenges the very heart of the law. In April 2010, Shelby County, Ala., a largely White suburb of Birmingham, Ala., filed suit in federal court asking […]

When President Obama was publicly sworn into office for the second time on Jan. 21 using Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Bible, many Black Americans were thrilled. Certainly, the King family was—they offered it to the president and attended the event at the Capitol to witness its use. However, all African Americans did not share […]

Essie Mae Washington-Williams died this month without ever publicly being acknowledged by her father, the infamous South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond. Yet, after his death in 2003, she became the embodiment of his legacy—as one of America’s greatest political hypocrites. That a politician who had built his career on claims of Black inferiority and the […]