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(The Root) — As the afternoon dissolved into evening on Election Day, voters streamed through the doors of Caledonia Elementary School in Cleveland Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. Many willingly took a copy of the Democratic slate into the polls, and many marked the top of the ticket for Barack Obama. They were the beginning…

(The Root) — On this Election Day, The Root caught up with voters in the “black mecca” — Harlem, USA. It’s a New York City neighborhood often remembered for its enthusiastic celebration of President Obama’s historic 2008 win and a community that hasn’t leaned Republican since 1984. And from what we could tell on Tuesday,…

(The Root) — Neither gloom nor cold nor waits around 90 minutes deterred prospective voters at the Cuyahoga County Board of Election in Cleveland on Sunday, Nov. 4 (dubbed “Souls to the Polls” Day as many congregations headed to vote after church), when more than 2,500 people cast ballots in Ohio’s Democratic stronghold.  The wait…

(The Root) — Wu-Tang Clan’s leader and primary beat-maker, RZA, is no stranger to kung fu flicks and ancient Eastern mythology. An admitted obsessive about the film genre, he incorporated samples of music and dialogue from Hong Kong movies into the group’s sound. He mined his interests further when he scored Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog:…

The Root caught up with a who’s who of celebs at this year’s BET Black Girls Rock! event at the Paradise Theater in the Bronx, N.Y. Songstress Dionne Warwick, who was the night’s “living legend” honoree, reality star and VH1 reality star La La Anthony, actress Gabrielle Union and others weighed in on why black…

(The Root) — For an episode of This Week in Blackness, Elon James White caught up with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) last month during the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference to get the congressman’s perspective on voter-ID laws and voter suppression in the lead-up to Election Day in November. Lewis, a civil rights legend,…

(The Root) — The Democratic National Convention is partly a massive get-out-the-vote effort for President Barack Obama and other Democrats on the ballot this November. But the controversy over the voter-ID laws that have popped up across the country — laws that critics liken to Jim Crow voter-suppression tactics — has added a more urgent…

Last night Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick told the Democratic National Convention delegates, “We Democrats owe America more than a strong argument for what we are against. We need to be just as strong about what we are for.” Earlier in the day, The Root’s contributing editor Elon James White posed a question along those lines…

(The Root) — During the Republican National Convention last week in Tampa, Fla., The Root’s Keli Goff caught up with former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, who is also an MSNBC analyst and a regular contributor to The Root. In part 1 of their interview, they discussed whether the government had a role in…

(The Root) — Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., The Root’s Keli Goff caught up with Florida’s lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll. During the discussion, when Goff asked her about controversy over recent changes in Florida’s voting laws, which critics say disproportionately affect minorities, Carroll characterized current regulations as generous. She touted the…