Originals

Didn’t we settle this question 147 years ago? That was when we had this thing called the Civil War. That was when, on April 9, 1865, the Confederate Army surrendered. That was when the Southern states were told, no, they couldn’t form their own country. But lately, it seems that all it took was the […]

Darren Vincent was 30 years old before he read his first book. His tough neighborhood in Niagara Falls, N.Y. offered enough real stories to keep him focused on just trying to survive. He was a young man filled with rage who fought other young men every chance he got. “I was a hard-headed, young, black […]

The future arrived early this week.  Thirty years early, to be exact. It blew in in time to send Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, to the White House for a second term. It put him over the top in Nevada and Colorado, with its contingency of Latino voters, and in Iowa, with young […]

Now what the hell kind of memo is this to get from the boss? In a low-blow attempt to exploit people’s fears about being able to hang onto their jobs in this struggling economy, it seems a few corporate moguls have taken it upon themselves to not only tell their employees what time to come […]

Sandra Walsh has had breast cancer twice. The first time was in 2005. The news left her breathless with disbelief. She was an active mom with a husband and three daughters, 11, 8 and 5. She worked as a mortgage agent and ran five miles a day. In retrospect, Walsh, who lives in Gwinnett, Ga., […]

If President Obama loses this election, it won’t be simply because of the economy, or the deficit or any of the conventional wisdom that many pundits tend to fall back on. It’ll be because white people rioted – in the ways that many of them have always rioted whenever black people or minorities begin to […]

Forget John Kerry. President Obama needs to hire Samuel L. Jackson as his debate coach. I mean, what has he got to lose? Sure, Obama turned in an aggressive performance in last night’s debate. He called Republican Mitt Romney out on many of his lies, and showed up and showed out. Hopefully, that debate will […]

Joe Jones once sold and used drugs, was in and out of jail and not a very good father to the son he had out of wedlock. But all of this was a very long time ago. Today, Jones, a native of Baltimore, is in and out of the White House, working passionately to change […]

Many people assume that blacks who fought in the Civil War were all slaves that may have been forced into battle. However, a new exhibit at the African-American Museum in L.A. tells many sides of the black soldier through photographs. The exhibit is called “African-American Military Portraits from the American Civil War." It includes photos […]

Maine isn’t a state that you’d think would have much to offer a brother. Its winters are bitter cold. There’s no hip, urban-style nightlife to be found.  And with 94 percent of the population being white – next to Vermont it’s the nation’s whitest state – I imagine many black visitors there would feel like […]

You know the desperation is thick when the other side has to stoop to talking about someone’s mama to lure voters. Yet that’s the latest tactic that wing-nuts are deploying in their war to destroy President Obama’s chances of being re-elected. They can’t win by lying about his record, as too many fact-checking organizations have […]

Shireen Lewis was working on her dissertation for her doctorate and feeling very isolated and alone. She recalls thinking, “There must be other women of color going through the same thing I am.” Lewis put out a call and four women showed up at the first gathering of a support group for women working on […]