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Black Musicians Who Were Targeted By The FBI and Other Law Enforcement

Black Musicians Who Were Targeted By The FBI and Other Law Enforcement

For decades, the FBI has kept a close eye on Black musicians and other artists they saw as a threat to the status quo.
Happy Father's Day: 15 Terrible Dads

Happy Father’s Day: 15 Terrible Dads

These crimes go wayyy beyond not paying child support.
Sole Survivor Explains How He's Alive After Air India Crash

Sole Survivor Explains How He’s Alive After Air India Crash

An Air India flight crash that claimed over 240 lives had one remarkable sole survivor.
  • Obama Stumps GOP With Sotomayor

    President Obama hit a home run by nominating Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court because the GOP cannot really oppose her on the so-called “merits” without, to be candid, looking ridiculous. Consider this: Sotomayor is from poor working-class roots. Her father died when she was 9. She worked her way to and through the nation’s…

  • Shots Fired in Chicago

    My teenage son is a college student in Chicago, where so far this school year at least 36 children and teens have been murdered, a rate of about one a week. It is a sad story only made sadder because the hopelessness of the situation shares the same geographic and psychic space as the enormous…

  • African Reverie

     Looking for a great big vacation this year? Two words: Mother Africa.   Sure, there is HIV/AIDS, poverty and war. But you can find all those things at home in the U.S., too. The blessings of the African continent make themselves apparent the moment you step off the plane. Nowhere else in the world will you…

  • Is That Your Mama At The Bar?

    Normally in times of turmoil, one quick call to mom will set things right. But what happens if mama is too busy drinking at the bar dealing with her own problems to help her children with theirs? Don’t laugh because it’s happening. Normally in times of turmoil, one quick call to mom will set things…

  • The Parent Trap

    Dear Come Correct: Let me try to boil this down to the essentials: About five years ago, my dad had an affair with someone who worked with him.  After a scorched-earth divorce, Dad married The Other Woman and mom has remained single.   He and I were close before the divorce; I have managed to…

  • Last of the Cold Warriors Take Each Other On –Diktats and All

    In a strange way, Powell and Cheney come from the same place; as two important members of the first Bush administration, both made their mark as part of the team that declared victory in the Cold War. As more prominent players in Bush II, the clashed at that Cold War persists to this moment. Powell…

  • Cheap Tickets, But at What Price?

    “If you are paying over $300 for a domestic ticket this year,” says Gerri Willismily: Times New Roman; color: #000000;”> of CNN, “you are paying too much.” The folks at FareCompare.com seem to agree, and they go as far as saying that now is the best time in a decade to fly. According to the…

  • A Soldier's Letters To His Son

    Excerpted from A Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy, Pulitzer Prize-winner and senior editor for the New York Times Copyright © 2008 by Dana Canedy. Excerpted by permission of Crown, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the…

  • Hit the Road, Black!

    If it’s a choice between the mortgage payment and a long weekend away this summer, then, please, stay at home! But if you’ve got a little wiggle room, here are The Root’s picks for great black history road trips. Unless otherwise indicated, admission is free. The Southeast 23 Montgomery St. Savannah, Ga. 912-233-6597 Guided tours…

  • Immortalizing a King

    Steven Spielberg is onboard to produce and direct a movie on Martin Luther King Jr. and I say, have at it. I’d prefer Oliver Stone gave it a shot, so we got a more accurate, warts-and-all dramatization of King’s life, but whatever. The King Mythology is so far gone and commodified to sell everything from…