culture
-
Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s Harvard Address to Nelson Mandela
Editor’s note: Henry Louis Gates Jr. addressed President Nelson Mandela with the following words on the conferring of a special honorary degree on Mandela by Harvard University on Sept. 18, 1998: Like so many of my fellow faculty members, I attended university in the late ’60s and early ’70. Ours was a generation that came…
-
Mandela’s Legacy: Tributes From Around the World
“The soul of Africa has departed, and there is nothing miraculous left in the world.” —Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer “All that I can do is thank God that I had a grandfather who loved and guided all of us in the family. The best lesson that he taught all of us was the need for…
-
Achievement Gap Persists for Black College Students in California
Black students in California still must overcome a persistent opportunity gap to obtain a degree from an institute of higher learning, a new study has found. According to a report (pdf) released by the Californian advocacy group Campaign for College Opportunity, black educational attainment has improved somewhat since 2000 in terms of earning bachelor’s degrees…
-
Black Policewoman Allegedly Subjected to Racial Profiling by Colleagues
A New York policewoman accused two white officers from her department of improperly charging her with resisting arrest, due to racial biases. “I have been wrongfully charged and falsely arrested, requiring me to defend against allegations that are based on prejudice coming from my own police force,” Dolores Sharpe, a 19-year veteran at the Nassau…
-
Poor Black and Hispanic Men, the Face of HIV
When you think of HIV/AIDS, what do you picture? According to a new report by the New York Times, the disease is disproportionately affecting poor men of color, making them the face of epidemic. Despite progress being made in preventing and treating HIV among the middle class, 50,000 people are still being newly infected annually.…
-
Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013: South Africa Prepares Its Goodbye
How do you say goodbye to a man whose life has had a profound impact on just about every world leader, sports hero, politician, college student, professor and Hollywood star? How do you capture the impact of that life in a ceremony? How do you memorialize a man who spent almost a third of his…
-
How Obama Has Changed Black Journalists
Left of Black host and Duke professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by The Root’s own David Swerdlick, who talks about modern journalism and President Obama’s influence on his career. Later, Neal is joined by journalist and playwright Esther Armah to discuss her Emotional Justice project and its holiday campaign for forgiveness, “The ‘F’ Word.”…
-
Nelson Mandela Dead at 95
Former South African President and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, known for his relentless stance against apartheid, has died at his Johannesburg home from a prolonged lung infection. He was 95. “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” South African President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday in a nationally televised…
-
How Mandela Kept His Enemies Close
As a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, Lynne Duke, who died April 19, 2013, at the age of 56, covered the late Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 and his presidency. Her experiences as a journalist covering the transformative time in South Africa as well as the region at large are chronicled in her…
-
Mourning an Icon: The Life of Nelson Mandela
On Feb. 11, 1990, South African political leader Nelson Mandela walked out of a prison after 27 years to fulfill his mission: dismantling the country’s apartheid regime. By 1994 the Nobel Prize winner had achieved just that by establishing the first democratic elections in South Africa and becoming its first black president. The towering statesman died today…