When we consider all that is at stake in the ongoing struggle between progressive and reactionary forces on the issue of food stamps, the faces of hungry American children should be the picture in the forefront of our minds and hearts. We all should be following the lead of national leaders like my Massachusetts colleague […]
Category: OPINION
Zimmerman Acquittal Could Double Loss for Trayvon Martin’s Family
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 […]
You Cannot Love Me And Not Love Black Men And Boys: We Are Inextricably Linked
I’ve been talking with my friends about what they are telling their children about what happened to Trayvon Martin. What Black men and women are saying to their sons. What Black men and women are saying to their daughters. What everyone else, from all other backgrounds, are saying to their children, their loved ones, their […]
Criminal Injustice System Failed Trayvon
Watching television Saturday night, I sat in stunned silence as the jury returned its not guilty verdict for George Zimmerman in connection with the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. Then, I was jolted by a comment made by Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda: “… We live in a great country that […]
Marian Wright Edelman Statement: Justice Denied
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In case you missed it, below is the reaction of Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, to the verdict in the George Zimmerman case for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Justice Denied Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons, is as important as the […]
Ruth Bader Ginsburg–the New Thurgood Marshall
If you’re looking for the justice on the Supreme Court who mirrors Thurgood Marshall’s tenure on the bench, it is not Sonia Sotomayor, the “Wise Latina.” And it certainly isn’t Clarence Thomas. It is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the nation’s highest court. This became clear in the Fisher v. University […]
Guns Have Changed Our Lives Forever
“Anger and jealousy do not last forever, but a gunshot fired in an impulsive rage often does. Easy accessibility to lethal guns makes a fatal difference over and over again.” “My heart was shattered while I was working at 60 Minutes when my only sister was shot and killed by her husband. There was a restraining […]
Obama Should Lead Fight to Revive Voting Rights Act
President Barack Obama should lead a forceful drive to revive the Voting Rights Act, which was effectively disemboweled by the Supreme Court’s recent decision. All celebrate the 1965act as the most consequential civil rights legislation of the past century. Its passage was central to the building of the New South, opening the way to attracting […]
A Century of Service Amid a Sea of Red
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 […]
On a Path Toward Re-segregation
There are demographic changes occurring in the United States that will change politics and public policy and make this country a more humane and equitable place. In another 20 to 30 years the U.S. will be a majority-minority country and White supremacy will be a discredited idea of the past. But we are not living […]
When Truth Overshadows Polished Testimony
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 […]
A Shameful Decision on Voting by the Supreme Court
The Voting Rights Act has been described as the “crown jewel” of civil rights legislation. Its passage was secured with the courage, grit and blood of activists throughout the south, like Fannie Lou Hamer who endured beating simply for trying to register to vote in Mississippi, Medgar Evers who was murdered by a White supremacist, […]

