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Tracing Your Roots: Was My Black Kin’s Land a Gift from a White Man?
Dear Professor Gates: My paternal great-grandfather, Joe P. Daniels, and his mother, my great-great-grandmother Matilda Jackson, settled in a small community called New Hope in Kilgore, Texas, by way of North Carolina. The story goes that one of the main contributors of this community was an Army officer named John Holt. He fell for Matilda…
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Please Allow Us to Reintroduce Ourselves
Hello. We’re The Root. Once a gleam in a noted professor’s eye, nurtured and carefully tended to by a tireless warrior woman and a bevy of brilliant bosses, we have been through the fire and walk among you the unburnt, First of Our Names, Blog of Unapologetic Blackness, Snatcher of Wigs, Bane of Bigots, #TeamRoot,…
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Donald Trump Is Our Next President, Thanks to White Voters
The human embodiment of white privilege is the next president of the United States. Just after 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, news reports rang out that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had conceded the election to Donald J. Trump as several states remained too close to call but were unlikely to turn in her favor. Now…
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So, Who’s With Her? Clinton May Have Made History, but It’s Just the Beginning
The Democratic National Convention ended on history. Hillary Clinton became the first woman to lead a major American political party’s ticket as a presidential nominee. Now, to complete her game of ultimate women’s-history bingo—from Ivy leaguer to first lady of Arkansas to first lady of the United States to senator from New York to secretary…
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President Obama Rebukes Trump’s Pessimism, Embraces Clinton, Gives America Some Love
When President Barack Obama embraced Hillary Clinton at the end of his rousing speech at his last Democratic National Convention as president of the United States, it was a fascinating bookend from 2008 when the then-rivals battled hard to reach an uneasy detente. “We battled for a year and a half,” recalled Obama during his…
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The One Reaction Everyone Should Have to Donald Trump’s RNC Nomination Speech
Donald Trump is the GOP nominee. No more presumptive. He’s it. He’s the man. He’s the one the Republicans have quarterbacking their team this election season. On Thursday night, Trump gave a loud, boisterous, bleak speech in which he gladly accepted the Republican Party’s nomination of him for president. So this is real now. And…
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#WeWontBeSilent: 2 Things the DOJ Can Do Now to Stop Police Violence
Two more black men became a hashtag on Twitter last week: Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. It’s a modern marker of our times, of an unnatural death publicly witnessed through a cellphone-camera lens. They were both killed by police officers for dubious reasons: They owned guns in states where carrying guns publicly is legal, but…
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What My Father and Juneteenth Taught Me About Having ‘Expectations’
I wouldn’t know Juneteenth without my father. He’s the Texan. He grew up celebrating the holiday that started on June 19, 1865, when slaves on Galveston Island, Texas, finally learned they’d been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior. Even though he now lived in St. Louis, he’d always make the same jokey reference…
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Who’s the Keeper of Your Mother’s Memories When She Can’t Remember Them?
Now, are you someone I’m supposed to know? She’s nice enough on the phone. Pleasant, even. So pleasant that it could be normal if you wanted to pretend. But then, she’s always been nice, always liked to talk, even if she had nothing to say. This was no different, although these days she has good…
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Bye-Bye, Contested Convention: Donald Trump Wins Ind. Primary; Ted Cruz Drops Out
Updated Tuesday, May 3, 9:30 p.m. EDT: In a win that will likely prolong Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign (even though it remains unlikely that he’ll win the Democratic nomination for president), CNN has called the state of Indiana for Sanders in the Democratic primary. It was a much-needed win after his rival, Hillary Clinton,…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
