“Black” is a magical word.

We all know who “stand your ground” laws protect, so perhaps it is not surprising that a 38-year-old black Selma, Ala., woman is behind bars and facing murder charges despite the fact that she insists she shot and killed her estranged husband in self-defense.

In the summer of 1993, my family relocated from the major international metropolis of Frankfurt (really Bad Homburg), Germany, to the not-a-major-international-metropolis of Huntsville (really Madison), Ala. My father was in the Army at the time and was stationed at Ft. Campbell, Ky. Since my dad had a year left until…

Chikesia Clemons, the black woman wrestled to the ground by three Saraland, Ala., police officers at a Waffle House in April, has been found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

A black fraternity filed a lawsuit in federal court last week, accusing a Tuscaloosa, Ala., restaurant of racial discrimination after they were denied the opportunity to rent an event space because, as the restaurant put it, “We’ve had problems with your kind before.”

One Boy Scouts of America leader might have let this whole “master” thing go to his Alabamian head. (Fun fact: Did you know that free black people were banned from the state of Alabama after 1834?)

To see the ways in which a country views itself, and its history, you need look no further than its monuments and memorials. These civic markers act as modes of remembrance, imploring onlookers to remember great historical feats and figures (as the Lincoln Memorial does), or to reflect on a complicated past (as the…

After being called out for a collection of racist social media posts echoing the sentiments of noted Twitter political pundit Roseanne Barr, a board member of Alabama’s second-largest school district passionately explained herself by citing Michelle Obama’s unpatriotic hate for America and kneeling NFL players’…

Police unions, objective observers and whatever they call white people (I’m using “‘MAGA’ Yeezys” this week) often accuse the media of casting law enforcement officers in a negative light simply because some news outlets believe the public should know about police brutality and the disproportionate killing of black…

Hard work pays off, and one Alabama teenager who served as inspiration goals for the rest of the country after being photographed walking to the bus just to get to his own graduation got the best graduation gift ever after being given a brand-new car.

What was billed as an afternoon with two brand-new young, progressive mayors recently elected to serve two of the blackest cities in America quickly turned into a perfect example of how new ideas, radical thinking and a new guard of black leadership are changing the political landscape for African-American voters.

Sisters are doin’ it for themselves, y’all. To date, approximately 603 black women are currently running for political office in the United States; in Alabama, a record 70 of the state’s 2018 candidates are black women (only two of which are Republican). Glamour magazine is featuring 18 of these hopefuls in its…

After less than two hours of deliberation, an Alabama jury issued a guilty verdict for the man who shot an unarmed child in the head after the teenager allegedly stole the man’s lunchbox.

Another day, another white person siccing the police on an innocent black person. In today’s news that sounds a lot like yesterday’s news, an employee at an Alabama Hobby Lobby called the local authorities to report that a black man was in the store committing the crime of ... well ... no one seems to know.

Like gifts from the grave, the words of Zora Neale Hurston, revered mother of black literary and womanist canon, have come back to bless us.

Tuscaloosa, Ala., police arrested an alleged creeper on the University of Alabama campus early Tuesday morning after reports that someone on campus had attempted to sexually assault a UA student as she was jogging. Police say the young man they apprehended, 19-year-old John Everett Threadgill, himself a University of…

Paul pulls the cigarette again.

The Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, 52, national president and founder of the Ordinary People Society, or TOPS, and a renowned voting-rights organizer and veteran criminal-justice and drug-policy-reform activist, is currently facing capital murder charges in Dothan, Ala., for allegedly being complicit in the shooting death of…

It’s time to take this story to the masses.
It’s time to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
May the other side of his-story now be entered into the record, the narrative, the myth of these United States of America. Forever and ever. Amen.

On Monday, Alabama is set to observe Confederate Memorial Day, commemorating the sons of the South killed in the Civil War. No surprise there. Alabama loves fighting with Mississippi for the title of “most racist state” (though they actually may be running neck and neck with “everything south of the Canadian border,”…