Category: Editorial

“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 […]

Twelve million dollars? Now who could get twisted about media mogul Oprah Winfrey donating $12 million to the Smithsonian Institution’s African American History Museum, being erected prominently on the National Mall? Surprisingly a number of silly souls do, if you troll the web. Ah, the web: A miraculous minefield for all manner of mindless misinformation. […]

Preeminent Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, said the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday legitimizing Maryland law enforcement’s use of an overreaching procedure of collecting genetic data in serious crimes will likely lead the way to more troubling privacy violations of the 4th Amendment’s protection against “unreasonable search and seizure.” ‘This opens up a Pandora’s Box on […]

Many Black Alexandrians are calling it “our local Trayvon Martin case.” And, they won’t rest until they get “Justice for Julian.” The promising 22-year-old Julian Dawkins, a driver for PBS’ Newshour, was shot and killed May 22 in the 100 block of Lynhaven Drive, apparently after an argument with off-duty Arlington County Sherriff’s Deputy Craig […]