Politics

Rosa Parks was a demure seamstress who defied a Montgomery, Ala., bus driver’s order to give up her seat to a white man because — on that particular day — she was tired. Her spontaneous act sparked a 1955 bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the tale told…

President Obama participated in a town hall meeting sponsored by CNBC yesterday. He fielded questions about the economy from supporters, many of whom voiced frustration with some of his choices. The president defended his record on the economy and jobs without blaming former President Bush. Bloggers are tethering themselves to one attendee who stated, “I’m…

The most fundamental political right in our society is the right to vote. Today (Sept. 21) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco will hear arguments in a case (Farrakhan v. Gregoire) that accuses the state of Washington of stripping that fundamental political right from citizens in a racially discriminatory…

Mayor Adrian Fenty’s loss in Washington, D.C., last week was a crying shame. Black wiser heads muse about how the system prevents black people from voting “their interests” — Harvard Law’s Lani Guinier comes to mind — and yet black D.C. residents kicked out a mayor who, along with schools chief Michelle Rhee, was making…

Leonie Hermantin remembers that when she was growing up in New York, her father told her she couldn’t date any African-American boys or young men. The thing is, Hermantin’s skin is brown. She was born in Haiti and spent 12 years there before her family moved to the United States. Alexandra King, an African American,…

These days, “CBC” is more of an adjective than an acronym. Loosely translated, it means something like “being of the professional and black.” So consider the receptions, galas, mixers, after parties and after-after parties with the sobriquet “CBC” to have been vetted. Sort of like Facebook five years ago, those .pdf evites with the Capitol…

President Obama, who has been accused of avoiding racial issues, jumped into the lion’s mouth Saturday when he made an unannounced appearance at the Congressional Black Caucus’ annual Washington conference and called on his most loyal constituents to resist plans to change the course his administration has set for the nation. Without naming the Republican…

Karl Rove and other Republicans who have long been in the political realm are not too pleased by the surge of Tea Party victories in the primaries. These underdog wins over favored Republican nominees for the U.S. Senate have thrown a kink into the plans of the GOP to regain control of Congress. Upset victories…

Back in June, 32 black Republicans were running for Congress. Three months and dozens of primaries later, that number has dwindled to just 13 people, only a handful of whom — three, according to New York Times statistician Nate Silver — actually have a strong chance of winning come November: Allen West of Florida, Ryan…

I’m not surprised, at this point in our political history, that Michelle Obama would be under attack. When she stands out as the half of the presidential couple with the super-high ratings, isn’t it only natural that somehow, some way, somebody would come out with guns a-blazin’, trying to destroy her credibility? What’s odd is…