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Civil Rights Attorney Julius Chambers Dies
Julius Chambers, a Charlotte, N.C., civil rights attorney who successfully brought eight cases before the Supreme Court, died Friday at age 76, the Associated Press reports. Chambers, a former director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was chancellor of North Carolina Central University from 1993 to 2001. He is survived by…
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Can Obama Move Us Past Baggy-Pants Talk?
(The Root) — According to Politico, President Obama told Maryland’s Rep. Elijah Cummings and other Democrats that addressing the needs of minority youths, including disparities in the criminal-justice system, is a priority of his second term. What remains to be seen is whether or not his solutions will move beyond talk and result in meaningful…
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Black Farmers to Receive Discrimination Settlement
After years of waiting, about 18,000 U.S. farmers are set to receive payments from the Department of Agriculture as part of a $1.2 billion discrimination settlement with the department, the Clarion Ledger reports. Attorneys for the farmers were expected to submit papers to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., regarding final payment on Friday.…
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Obama's Photographer Joins Instagram
So the White House’s Instagram account is pretty cool, but Pete Souza’s account is awesome. Souza, chief official White House photographer, opened his own Instagram account July 24. Though his pictures occasionally found their way to the White House Instagram account, Souza’s account has a different feel. The tone isn’t as political. Souza posts beautiful…
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Who Killed Black Wall Street?
Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. (The Root) — Amazing Fact about the…
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Who's Up for a National Talk on Race? No One
(The Root) — I just finished reading an editorial in Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, the dominant newspaper in the city I now call home. It reminded me why I’m so skeptical about the idea of a national conversation on race. It was about the death earlier this week of 98-year-old former U.S. Sen. Harry F. “Little…
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Quote of the Day: Madam CJ Walker on Opportunity
Read The Root’s coverage of Madam C.J. Walker 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. Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us…
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Where Voting Rights Are Under Attack
(The Root) — When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in August 1965, he described the law as a “triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.” The announcement came with plans to analyze voter-registration rolls, identify communities with the largest numbers…
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Diplomatic Posts Remain Closed After Threat
U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Muslim world will be closed at least through the end of the week, the State Department said Sunday, citing “an abundance of caution,” the Associated Press reports. On Friday, the Obama administration announced the closings over the weekend, and officials issued a global travel alert, warning that…
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Tea Party: Dropping GOP Stars?
Members of the Tea Party plan to abandon Republican lawmakers they helped elect four years ago because many have adopted more moderate positions on key issues such as immigration and health care, the Associated Press reports. The move could hurt the re-election chances of former stars, including the governors of Florida and Ohio. Four years…
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