Politics

When in doubt, bring up the slavery days.

UPDATE: The disorderly conduct charges against Henry Louis Gates Jr. were dropped on Tuesday. Statement on Behalf of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — by Charles Ogletree This brief statement is being submitted on behalf of my client, friend, and colleague, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This is a statement concerning the arrest of Professor Gates.…

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation’s pre-eminent black scholar, is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University. Cambridge police were called to the home Thursday afternoon after a woman reported seeing a man “wedging his shoulder into the…

Barack Obama has been president for exactly six months, and we’ll have to wait a while to find out whether all the frenetic activity in these opening rounds of his presidency will amount to anything over the long haul. There is no argument that the administration and the president have both been busy and ambitious;…

From the Washington Post: “Six months into his presidency, Barack Obama may have no greater test of his ability to translate personal popularity into a successful legislative agenda than the upcoming two weeks. With skepticism about the president’s health-care reform effort mounting on Capitol Hill — even within his own party — the White House…

Last week, National Black Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Harry Alford gave Sen. Barbara Boxer the business over their disagreements about the climate bill before her committee. In testimony before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, Alford admitted that he spoke “not as an economist” and as “not a climate change expert,” but…

Forty years ago this week, a man walked on the moon. The ultimate prize in the decade-long “space race,” the two-and-a-half-hour moonwalk by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin remains a testament to American exceptionalism, technological prowess and nationalist fervor. And face it, it’s pretty thrilling to watch. In honor of meeting the scientific challenge that…

From CNN: Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman known as “Uncle Walter” for his easygoing, measured delivery and “the most trusted man in America” for his rectitude and gravitas, died Friday night in his New York home, CBS reported. Cronkite was 92. “Walter was always more than just an anchor. He was someone we could trust…

“What we gonna do now?” As part of the ongoing celebration of the NAACP’s centennial, Cornel West and Julian Bond got together in a New York City bookstore Thursday to try to answer this question. Lately, the venerable (read old, stale, irrelevant) civil rights organization, while universally lauded for its past contributions to fighting discrimination…