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Remixing Grandma's Voice
Every time a format changes – from tape to CDs to MP3s – some crucial information risks obsolescence and loss. That’s why my Mother’s Day present to my family wasn’t a card or a call. It was a digital version of an interview I taped with my grandmother, Elizabeth Evans, back in 1990. Eighteen years…
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A Primer on Black Independence Day
So, you’ve heard about the celebration called Juneteenth. You may have bought a T-shirt at some point to signal your historical street cred. You may even have attended a Juneteenth picnic or paused to recognize it in some way. But, admit it, you don’t really know all that much about the day. And you may…
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When Fresh Food is a Luxury
East Cleveland, Ohio—Barack Obama got an ovation when he recently stood in a Chicago pulpit and scolded parents for giving their children cold Popeye’s chicken for breakfast, according to The New York Times. But a short drive around Euclid and Superior Avenues, a major intersection in this Cleveland area suburb, would reveal why fast-food leftovers…
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What is Sarcoidosis?
The news of Bernie Mac’s death has his fans learning a new word—”sarcoidosis”—as they grieve over the comedian whose blunt, earthy humor took him from Chicago’s streets to Hollywood’s boulevards. Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that usually hits the skin, the eyes, lymph nodes and lungs. Mac had been treated for the condition, and it…
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How Do You Count the Crowd at Inauguration?
Want to know how many folks are expected for the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009? Well, it depends on whom you ask. Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty predicts at least 3 million people could be crammed onto the National Mall for the swearing-in ceremony. Law enforcement agencies expects about 1 million folks will witness the…
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Why We Still Need February
Black History Month has barely begun, but some columnists are calling for an end. It’s time, they say, to abolish the month-long observance because of—you guessed it—the election of Barack Obama. His presidency proves that African Americans are fully intertwined into the American experience. So why relegate our history to a month of “rote and…
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Hit the Road, Black!
If it’s a choice between the mortgage payment and a long weekend away this summer, then, please, stay at home! But if you’ve got a little wiggle room, here are The Root’s picks for great black history road trips. Unless otherwise indicated, admission is free. The Southeast 23 Montgomery St. Savannah, Ga. 912-233-6597 Guided tours…
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How to Be a Black Genius
By now, the rash of headlines and network news reports around the world have died down about the latest crop of new MacArthur fellows, a group of scholars, scientists, activists and artists popularly known as “geniuses.” Although the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which sponsors the $500,000, no-strings-attached awards, studiously avoids the term…
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The Miseducation of Texas School Kids
See, a bunch of guys needed something to do in 1865 and 1866, right after the Civil War. It wasn’t like they could go back to their plantations; Northerners had seen to that. So these good ole boys amused themselves by dressing up in sheets and riding through the countryside pulling pranks. Just good, clean…
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The Return of 'Sundown' Towns?
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Perhaps that’s the reason 57 percent of voters in Fremont, Neb., passed a controversial law that prohibits “harboring or hiring illegal aliens.” The ordinance requires employers to check the residency status of each potential hire on the E-Verify database, a voluntary program run by the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
