Politics

Written by Robert Barnes When Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson decided to start a new civil rights education organization that would bear their famous names, they sealed the deal in a fitting local spot: Cafe Reconcile. They represent the opposing principals in one of the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the…

Despite the Republican Party’s noted challenges in the 2012 presidential elections, the GOP continues to alienate itself from groups that once rallied behind it. In 2000, Muslim voters came out in droves to support George W. Bush in the presidential elections, but since then, the party has gradually been losing Muslim-American support. Republican presidential hopefuls…

Later this month, Michelle Obama will take an official state trip to South Africa and Botswana. “This visit to two critical countries will underscore that the United States has an important stake in the success of Africa’s many nations and underscore the historic connections between the American people and those who live on the African…

I was saddened by the news that Albertina Sisulu, one of the great leaders of the African National Congress had died at the age of 92. She was the widow of Walter Sisulu, the first secretary general of the ANC, a Robben Island prisoner and colleague of Nelson Mandela. She was a retired nurse and…

Earlier this week, Sarah Palin demonstrated why certain stars should never dabble in politics when she said the Republican Party platform is “best for America” because “[i]t’s all about respecting equality.” Never mind the document calls for etching discrimination into the Constitution with an amendment banning same-sex marriage. Well, yesterday, Palin was at it again.…

My old pal Paul Delaney, a fellow contributor to The Root, recently asked me what kind of speech I thought Barack Obama’s Republican challenger would make to a mainstream black audience during next year’s presidential campaign. It’s a good question because every four years, the GOP and its standard-bearer reaffirm their determination to go after…

During the 30-year fight against AIDS, several U.S. presidents have been faced with tackling the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic — and according to the Black AIDS Institute and the NAACP, not all have risen to the occasion. In the report 30 Years Is Enuf! the two organizations graded five presidents from the last three decades —…

The day after Herman Cain won the GOP’s first 2012 presidential debate, I recapped it thusly: “Just minutes after the debate ended, an on-air focus group run by Fox News pollster Frank Luntz declared, almost unanimously, that Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, was the debate’s winner. Their reaction: ‘He’s a problem solver.’ “ It…

It’s all about this business of “contesting.” And it’s about all of us. One thing we all know is that if Cornel West actually met Barack Obama alone in a room — and we can be sure this will happen one day, and likely more than once — he would embrace him and call him…