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Martin Luther King Jr. and the White Delusion of a 'Non-Racist' America
There are two MLKs. There once was a man named Martin Luther King Jr. who actually lived and breathed. He was a radical who believed in the redistribution of wealth, argued for slave reparations and that wrote that moderate whites who didn’t speak out on racism were just as bad as the Ku Klux Klan.…
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News You Can Choose: Iowa Bar Cancels MLK-Themed Keg Party
Note: To read the story of how an Iowa bar callously disrespected the legacy and the name of Martin Luther King Jr., please read the plain type. To read the story about how an Iowa bar came to its senses and apologized for its offensive, racist actions, follow the story in bold type. As America…
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This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Here's How to Get Involved in Your Community
Unless you live in Alabama or Mississippi, Monday serves as the perfect opportunity to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Established as a national holiday in 1983, MLK Day is observed by millions of Americans throughout the country. But while your city might host parades or other celebrations in his honor,…
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‘Hang the Whites’: Rapper’s Hate Speech Trial Exposes the Hypocrisy of Race Relations in France
The music video for 34-year-old French rapper Nick Conrad’s “Pendez les Blancs” (“Hang the Whites”) opens with a jarring visual akin to the title itself: the lifeless body of a white man on a noose, while Conrad (a black man of Cameroonian descent) stands beside him lighting a cigar. It’s a role reversal intended to…
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Usher Got a Conk for the New Year—and the Internet's Got Jokes
The new year traditionally marks new beginnings: renewed commitments to health, progress and prosperity—and, in the case of many, a new look. We can only assume that’s what R&B singer Usher was thinking when he decided to go Team Unnatural on the eve of 2019, debuting a ’60s-era, Sammy Davis-styled permed pompadour the likes of…
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Childhood Home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sold to National Park Service
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the childhood home of Martin Luther King Jr. has been sold to the National Park Service. The home, which had been owned by the King family since 1909, was sold for $1.9 million to the National Park Foundation, who then transferred ownership to the National Park Service. For the past…
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Education, Not Discrimination: NAACP Legal Defense Fund Asks Florida Schools to End Biased Hair Policies
As children returned to school this fall, new teachers and classmates weren’t the only things that greeted some students. More than one story surfaced of children being turned away, or sent home from school, because of culturally-specific hairstyles like braids or dreadlocks. One such child was six-year-old Clinton Stanley, Jr., whose story went viral when…
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Watch: Teens March 50 Miles in Honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
A group of teens began a 50-mile march in Mississippi on March 31 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and to mark the 50th anniversary of his assassination. The group, which includes adult mentors, will finish its march on April 4 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where King was killed on April…
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Upholding the Dream: MLK’s Granddaughter Continues Her Family’s Legacy
Yolanda Renee King, the grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, made a surprise appearance Saturday at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. The 9-year-old roused the crowd with a passionate speech that would no doubt have made her activist grandparents proud, evoking the “I Have a Dream” speech…