culture

(The Root) — On an historic day in August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered these words on the state of racial affairs in America a century after the Emancipation Proclamation: “One hundred years later the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled…

(The Root) — In the opening line of his “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. predicted that the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom would “go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history…

People should simply attribute Georgia school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff’s heroic efforts to her humanity rather than to her being a strong black woman, Tressie McMillan Cottom writes at her tressiemc.com blog. Tuff is an amazing woman who did what we can each only hope to be brave enough to do when so many lives are at…

Martin Luther King Jr.’s superlative “I Have a Dream” speech “is not free, alas,” Mother Jones‘ Lauren Williams writes. It will not be in the public domain until 2038, and until then, commercial enterprises wishing to use it must pay his estate a hefty fee. I have a dream that on the 50th anniversary of the…

(The Root) — Like many of the films in the “it’s complicated” historical-fiction genre, Lee Daniels’ The Butler uses broad strokes to paint a decidedly unpretty picture — the cinematic equivalent of an Instagram filter. But despite the artistic liberties and Forest Gump-like rendering of the life of White House butler Cecil Gaines — based…

(The Root) — “Although we can trace my maternal grandmother’s heritage back to Europe, she periodically received family-reunion invitations from another family with the last name ‘Ellzey,’ which was her husband’s last name. Turns out there must have been a slave owner named Ellzey, too, because I’m pretty sure my grandma was the only white…

We are all familiar with Kanye West’s aversion to interviews, and he very rarely enjoys talking about his personal life through anything but his music. When family calls, though, he will do anything. On Friday, West will appear on the season finale of Kris, the talk show hosted by Kris Jenner, the grandmother of North…

WNYT-TV is reporting that a Schenectady County, N.Y., black business owner’s surveillance cameras captured an undercover police informant planting and photographing crack cocaine, which ultimately led to the man’s arrest. Schenectady County police reportedly were suspicious of Donald Andrews Jr., who owns a smoke shop in Scotia, N.Y., and decided to send the undercover informant…

In a surprise move, President Barack Obama called Antoinette Tuff, the Georgia woman credited with helping prevent a school shooting, to thank her for her courage, the Associated Press reports. The White House says Obama spoke with Antoinette Tuff on Thursday while in New York, where he is on an education-focused bus trip. The White House…

Rapper J. Cole, an award nominee at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, discussed a range of issues during a recent interview with BET, including racial profiling and colorism in hip-hop. The North Carolina native said, “I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.” He said that’s the…