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MLK's 'Dream': How the Speech Became Popular
(The Root) — Was the Martin Luther King Jr. speech we now know as “I Have a Dream” masterfully composed and delivered? Of course it was. Was the moment in August 1963 when it was delivered historic? Absolutely. But does any of that explain why the “dream”— King’s well-known vision of black children and white…
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Quote of the Day: Dorothy Cotton on the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement
Read the quote in its full context here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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My Lady Has Issues With My Biracial Son
(The Root) — “I’ve been dating a lady for a while, so I figured it was time for her to meet my son, who is biracial. She was very nice to him. However, on the way home, she said she was surprised that as a white guy I’d had a child with a black woman.…
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The Rampant Sexism at March on Washington
(The Root) — The March on Washington is considered one of the greatest gatherings for equal rights in human history. Yet while the crowd congregated to push for the equality of black Americans and workers’ rights, female participants in the march, and the civil rights movement as a whole, struggled for equal treatment, acknowledgment and…
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No More About a Dream. I Want to Hear a Plan
(The Root) — I was a 17-year-old face in the crowd of 250,000 when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his immortal sermon at the March on Washington. I was standing so far behind the Reflecting Pool that I could barely make out the figures on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the historic words…
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The Badass Women of the March
Keli Goff is The Root’s special correspondent. Follow her on Twitter. It is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of one of the greatest human rights movements in history. The civil rights movement, which did so much to advance equal rights for African Americans, struggled to demonstrate gender equality in its treatment of female civil rights…
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LeBron James: Instagram Video Sparks Police Investigation
LeBron James’ social media showboating may have gotten some of Miami-Dade’s finest in trouble. The NBA superstar posted video of police officers in Miami escorting him and his entourage to a Justin Timberlake-Jay Z concert at Sun Life Stadium. He tweeted the video with the caption: “They treat us so well! We needed it cause…
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Kevin Hart: 'Black Women Assume They Know Your Life'
Kevin Hart, responding to criticism of his relationships, expressed frustration with black women, saying they “assume they know your life,” MadameNoire reports. Kevin Hart stays in trouble with black women[,] doesn’t he? At least that’s what we gathered from the controversy, or better yet criticisms, that have seemed to follow his career since he entered the…
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Black Twitter Gets a Wikipedia Page
(The Root) — The recent fascination with what has come to be known as “black Twitter” continues with the recent creation of a Wikipedia article on the topic. Some have been wary of the very naming of “black Twitter” from the start, since making it an official thing seems to reinforce the status of blacks…
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Blue-Eyed Soul: Cultural Appropriation?
Is blue-eyed soul a form of cultural appreciation or appropriation? Spurred by Robin Thicke’s soulful summer hit, “Blurred Lines,” Michael A. Gonzales explores the question at Ebony. Nevertheless, while “Blurred Lines” is most definitely one of the hottest songs of the season, Robin Thicke also retains his spot as one of the more popular “blue-eyed soul” singers…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
