The White House was “Open for Questions” Thursday, Oct. 20, when senior White House officials Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes sat down with The Root’s Cynthia Gordy to answer questions from audience members and our Twitter followers and Facebook fans about the American Jobs Act and what the president is doing to combat poverty. Find…

Filmmaker Obatala Mawusi said that the days he spent documenting the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City were “eye-opening.” In particular, the diversity he saw among the protesters belied the images of the movement in mainstream media. In early October 2011, Mawusi spoke to some of the black participants about why the Occupy…

After Hurricane Irene derailed plans for an August ceremony, the dedication for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., finally took place on Oct. 16. A series of luminaries — including Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Andrew Young, Cicely Tyson and President Barack Obama — spoke, and singers such as…

The 2011 Black Girls Rock! award show, hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina King at the Paradise Theatre in the Bronx, N.Y., Saturday night, celebrated the work and contributions of black women in the arts, business, activism and philanthropy. Shirley Caesar, Taraji P. Henson, Tatyana Ali and the incomparable Angela Davis were among the…