Politics

Tavis Smiley is unabashed about bringing his controversial road show to President Obama’s turf. The talk show host, a persistent critic of the president, has been an advocate of a “black agenda” that would focus federal resources directly on issues that affect black America. Next week Smiley will preside over a three-hour discussion in Washington,…

This week we will hear a certain amount about how the newly unearthed short stories by Zora Neale Hurston reveal her interest in urban black culture, often obscured because of her rural focus in books like Their Eyes Were Watching God. Seeing Hurston rounded out for us is always welcome because she was complicated indeed.…

Rep. Allen West, one of two new black Republicans in the House of Representatives, still has a lot to learn about politics on the national stage. Mainly that you should learn from mistakes you make. West caught flack late last year when he announced that his friend Joyce Kauffman, a talk-radio host known for making…

Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n’ Waffles, the landmark soul food eatery tucked in a dreary lot at the northern extremity of L.A.’s 10th City Council District, is a popular gathering place for the hip and the hungry. Slumming celebrities, multimillionaire athletes and just plain folks mingle among the tourists and the curious at the Southern-style…

Without the fanfare of a signing ceremony, President Obama signed the 9/11 health bill into law on Sunday in Hawaii. “It came out with a member of the staff so that it could be signed in a timely fashion,” White House spokesman Bill Burton said. The bill provides health coverage to the first responders to…

At a Chicago concert on Saturday evening, Chuck Berry slumped over his keyboard and had to be escorted offstage after multiple attempts to continue his show.  “All I know is he felt faint, he felt weak and I was told to call 911,” said Michael Petryshyn, the concert’s promoter, backstage after Berry’s departure. Berry, who…

If you know anything about Chicago-style politics — particularly when it comes to the open mayoral seat that is available for the first time in more than a generation — you know that having a consensus African-American candidate is important to many black Chicagoans. If you know anything about black America in general, you know…

The Rev. Jesse Jackson held a meeting on Wednesday night to try to unify two of the black Chicago mayoral candidates: U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. Jackson and other African-American leaders hope that if only one of these candidates runs for election, there will be a better chance for…

Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor, wants everyone to believe he is the good guy in the case of two black women who have spent nearly 20 years in prison because of an $11 robbery that they may not have even committed. Once the heat over his recent civil rights flap got a little too warm for…

Much was made of President Obama’s identification of “empathy” as a key attribute of a Supreme Court nominee. Republican derision of empathy as a desirable quality in a Supreme Court justice was, of course, a mere tempest in a teapot. Republican presidents have also touted the importance of empathy, including George H.W. Bush, who introduced…