Politics

Little-known fact: The crab state of Maryland has one of the highest percentages of black population in the United States. Theoretically, you might think that that would make the state one of the more powerful black political blocs in the land. Yet while the state is nearly 33 percent African American, it’s never had an African-American governor…

On the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Ala., President Barack Obama delivered a rousing speech before an estimated crowd of 40,000 on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that placed honoring Selma’s legacy at the cornerstone of his remaining presidency. Obama’s strong speech came on a day of commemoration, which featured a host of visiting political…

It’s never too hard to feel as if you’re having your political power snatched away from you. But the real challenge is proving it—all there in one accessible place, all by the numbers. As we reach the 50th-anniversary mark of Selma, Ala.’s “Bloody Sunday”—the indisputable tipping point that got the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed—the debate…

I suppose it’s possible that a different rhetorical approach hasn’t yet occurred to Ben Carson, but I’m here to tell him that it really is conceivable for a politician to express his opposition to same-sex marriage without resorting to spiteful and derisive language about gays and lesbians in the process. And that argument probably goes…

The two most-senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus—Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), 85, and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), 84—were honored at the CBC Foundation’s annual Avoice Heritage Celebration Dinner in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night. Both were presented with the Distinguished Pioneer Award as founding members of the CBC. Conyers came to Congress in 1965 and Rangel…

According to a Field Poll (pdf) released last Wednesday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leads a crowded field of potential candidates for California’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2016. It’s a notable occurrence that Rice, a Republican who has served in two White House administrations, has support from 49 percent of voters in a Democratic-stronghold…

The two-term former mayor of New York City who couldn’t even make it through the first quarter of a Republican presidential primary just called the two-term president of the United States un-American. Digging into his bag of bigoted ad-libs, Rudy Giuliani couldn’t help scratching his racist itch during a recent “off-the-record” fundraising dinner for 2016…

If it weren’t for all this snow falling in the nation’s capital, you’d probably catch a glimpse of that perfect storm brewing over President Barack Obama’s now-famous executive order on immigration reform. It has, once again, emerged as a point of contention on the salted streets between Capitol Hill and the White House, with the…

In case you missed it, friends, it’s that time of the year again: when the dramatic unveiling of the president’s $4 trillion federal budget is—real talk—worthy of a cable miniseries or, at the very least, a House of Cards director’s cut. This particular year is important because it’s the second-to-last fiscal cycle during which President Barack Obama will…

As the Center for American Progress’ Sam Fulwood III aptly pointed out in his recent analysis of the impact of the economic downturn in communities of color, there’s an old saying that also applies when we’re talking about health outcomes: “When white folks catch a cold, black folks catch pneumonia.” And with the concerns of…