Category: OPINION

(NNPA) — It was 1963. The nation was at a virtual boiling point. Despite marked gains in the civil rights struggle from integrating lunch counters and universities to equalizing buses, the fight for justice was far from over. As fire hoses and police dogs continued to be unleashed on those seeking basic human rights, and […]

July 4 marked 234 years of U.S. independence. And although America’s ongoing “melting pot experiment” is theoretically unbiased to Blacks, Latinos and Muslims, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that hate groups, like the well-armed Hutaree militia, have increased 200 percent since President Obama’s 2008 election. Texas, the former rebel republic and current headquarters of […]

Although the NAACP and Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network have enthusiastically endorsed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, two key legal groups have so far refrained from endorsing the former Harvard law dean amid questions about whether she would be a strong civil rights advocate on the court. That split underscores the complexities of a […]

I was honored when Speaker Nancy Pelosi named me as a House negotiator in our marathon effort to seek the Senate’s agreement on how best to make Wall Street and the big financial institutions more accountable. I also knew that achieving true reform would be a difficult fight. It took us days of negotiation – […]

NEW YORK – When a young Egyptian died from what his family, activists and witnesses say was a savage police beating, many of his peers – the generation of Egyptians who have known no other leader than President Hosni Mubarak – protested and mourned in the way they know best: by going online. Generation Mubarak […]

As chairman of the House Coast Guard Subcommittee, I have been deeply involved in determining how and why the Gulf oil spill occurred and – equally important – what we must now do to assure that such a disaster never happens again. Recently, I returned to the Gulf for a second on-site congressional briefing. We […]

The nomination of Elena Kagan, the 50-year-old solicitor general, deserves a much closer look when her Senate confirmation hearings begin June 28. Americans, particularly African Americans, cannot allow our judgment of her slim record be clouded by a knee-jerk desire to see historic President Barack Obama do well. Kagan’s record includes questionable hiring practices while […]

(NNPA) – “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.”  […]

The nomination of Elena Kagan, the 50-year-old solicitor general, deserves a much closer look when her Senate confirmation hearings begin June 28. Americans, particularly African Americans, cannot allow our judgment of her slim record be clouded by a knee-jerk desire to see historic President Barack Obama do well. Kagan’s record includes questionable hiring practices while […]

There is an old saying: “Knowledge is power.” This is true about many aspects of life, but is of paramount importance when it comes to the crisis of HIV and AIDS in the Black community. As an African-American medical expert, I know the single biggest factor fueling the AIDS epidemic in our community is that […]

What happens when a prominent critic of the District’s governing body takes on two of its lead decision makers? He comes out a clear winner – at least, in the case of this week’s mayoral forum held at Trinidad Baptist Church in Northeast Washington. Small business owner and former TV reporter Leo Alexander outweighed Mayor […]