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  • The Doll Test for Racial Self-Hate: Did It Ever Make Sense?

    The landmark 1954 civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education is credited with shutting down “separate but equal” education for African-American kids and paving the way for school integration. Its other legacy? The tradition of questioning small children about black and white dolls in order to measure their sentiments about race. The “doll test,”…

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  • GOP’s 19-Year-Old ‘Rising Star’ Says School Choice Will Help Close Achievement Gap

    In the state of Maine, you’re more likely to bump into a Democrat or Independent than a Republican, so being a black Republican and living in a town that has not elected a Republican state representative in decades, I understand what it’s like to be in the minority. But being in the minority didn’t stand…

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  • Was My Ancestor the Only Civilian Killed at Appomattox?

    My great-great-grandmother Leah Ballard Ancrum Williams was born circa 1840 and died in 1917 in Camden, Kershaw County, S.C. It was said that she bore 18 children, some before and some after slavery ended. We recently discovered her 1917 death certificate listing her mother’s name as Hannah Reynolds. This was great news to us, since…

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  • When a Police Commissioner Calls Obama the N-Word, It’s Time for Mandatory Diversity Training

    Here we go again. Someone in a position of authority has said something racist. More specifically, something racist about President Barack Obama, and gotten caught. Only this time the person didn’t make a fried-chicken or watermelon joke, or call the commander in chief “boy.” He actually used the n-word. And did I mention this authority…

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  • Va. High School Students Challenged Segregation and Helped Pave the Way for Brown

    John A. Stokes, a 19-year-old high school senior, and his schoolmates were sweltering. In the tar paper shacks they called classrooms, there was no indoor plumbing or running water. The tar paper provided no insulation and sometimes even failed to keep out the rain. Conditions weren’t much better during winter, when a single wood-stoked, potbellied…

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  • Here’s Why That School Principal Tells Young Black Men to Wear Ties

    If you want to read a compelling defense of the individuality of spirit and mind in young black men—and their right to choose the normal range of teenage self-expression—look no further than this week’s Race Manners column, in which The Root’s Jenée Desmond-Harris explains why she’s skeptical about a school principal who stresses “dress for…

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  • Texas High School Sophomore Turns Out to Be 31-Year-Old Woman

    High school sophomore Charity Stevens wasn’t who she claimed to be. It turns out that 15-year-old “Charity Stevens” was actually Charity Anne Johnson, a 31-year-old woman. Jezebel notes a KLTV report that Johnson enrolled in New Life Christian School in Long View, Texas, in March, posing as Charity Stevens. Before enrolling, Johnson convinced Tamika Lincoln to…

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  • 4 Reasons President Obama Will Regret Tapping a Conservative Judge

    The News: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday stood against one of President Barack Obama’s nominees to a federal court in Georgia, citing the candidate’s past support of the Confederate flag and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. “Unless I have a better explanation, I can’t vote for him,” Reid told BuzzFeed. “This…

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  • Mother and Sons Earn College Degrees in the Same Week

    Talk about a triple play: The Williams family of Chicago, a mother and two of her sons, all received their bachelor’s degrees during commencement ceremonies this week. Aaron Williams and his mother, Tonya Williams both received bachelor’s degrees from Chicago State University Thursday, while brother and son Evan Williams graduated from Eastern Illinois University earlier…

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  • Brown v. Board: With Resegregation, the Struggle Continues

    This Saturday, May 17, marks the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that formally outlawed racial segregation in public schools. The case was heralded then, as it is now, as a watershed moment in American history. The culmination of a decadeslong and painfully tedious NAACP strategy masterminded by unsung…

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