Michael Cottman
Michele Dowdy is mourning the loss of her only child. She cries often, she’s tired – and she’s angry. She has good reason. Ten months after her son, Malcom, was shot and killed in Chicago, his murderer still has not been brought to justice. There have been no arrests in the case and Michele worries […]
Bobby Brown is a terrible father. It may be too late for Brown to grow up, turn his life around, and be the father that his daughter, Bobbi Kristina, seriously deserves. Perhaps I’m expecting too much of Bobby Brown, former husband of Whitney Houston, drug user and alcoholic. But if Brown has any dignity left […]
If you’re tuning in regularly to watch your favorite black voices on CNN, they won’t be on the air much longer. CNN is parting ways with long-established voices of Soledad O’Brien and Roland Martin and the network may also be planning to say goodbye to Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist and CNN’s only African American […]
Imagine this: You’re on an airline flight and you watch a white man leave his seat to slap a black 19-month-old baby and then tells the baby’s mother: “Shut that (N-word) baby up.” Sounds like a bad joke? It’s no joke. It actually happened two weeks ago on a Delta Airlines flight. Joe Rickey Hundley […]
Jesse Jackson Jr. betrayed his devoted black constituents, stuffed his pockets with campaign cash, and now, as a result of his greed and arrogance, his fate rests in the hands of a federal judge. The former congressman from Illinois, the son of icon Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., could spend several years in prison for repeated […]
President Barack Obama has a bold plan for uplifting black America and the White House wants African Americans to know it. Sitting inside the White House, I listened to Valarie Jarrett, the president’s senior adviser, speak passionately about Obama’s ambitious goal to rehabilitate 20 poor communities across the country where black people have struggled for […]
President Barack Obama has adopted a new style of governing for his second term in the White House: Get with the program – or get out of the way. It’s a refreshing change from his conciliatory approach to Congress in previous years. And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Obama is using […]
First Lady Michelle Obama walks softly and carries a big stick. She mourned the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton Saturday and also highlighted gun violence in America without uttering a single word at the funeral. And it was the right thing to do. Obama paid her respects to Pendleton inside a packed church on Chicago’s […]
Federal prosecutors should leave Sandi Jackson alone. I don’t know if Jackson broke the law or if she’s just a scapegoat in a political take-down, but I’m only thinking about her school-age children while this high-profile drama unfolds. Jackson, the wife of former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, is reportedly the target of a separate criminal […]
Zora Ball, a 7-year-old prodigy, is the youngest person to create a mobile video game. She’s in the first grade – and she’s black. Zora is a high-tech kid in a high-tech world who is already a serious inventor in a competitive global marketplace. The brilliant youngster from Philadelphia applied her math skills to design […]
“It’s joyful to know that my work is also inspiring young women and young African American women.” –Lisa Jackson. Lisa Jackson is a rebel on a crusade for justice. Sitting at the head of a large glass-top table inside her cavernous office, Jackson, the first African American to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, talked […]
I’m weary of writing about young black children being gunned down in the prime of their lives; senseless shootings after silly arguments that result in gunfire and a trail of tears. On Thursday, it happened again: a 14-year-old student was shot outside an Atlanta middle school and another student was arrested by police. Atlanta police […]
