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Thirty-five years ago, the television miniseries Roots cracked open the national dialogue about race with its searing portrayal of life before and during slavery for several generations in African-American writer Alex Haley’s family. Is America as honest about the way we discuss race today? One of Roots’ stars, Leslie Uggams, spoke with The Root’s editor-in-chief,…

Defining blackness in a post-civil rights era is more complex than it was decades before, according to Touré, author of Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now.   The Root’s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., sat down with Touré to talk about racial authenticity, being black during Obama’s presidency and why…

Members of The Root 100 for 2011 gathered in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 5, 2011, for The Root’s gala held in their honor. Several attendees chatted with us about their favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions and shared what they were most looking forward to this holiday season. “Rest” was a popular answer! Read more about…

The Occupy Wall Street movement met another obstacle as police moved into New York City’s Zuccotti Park overnight and evacuated the encampment. The Root was on the scene in Foley Square in Manhattan on November 15, and caught up with demonstrators hoping to return to the scene of protests and arrests.

As the Occupy Movement picks up steam from coast to coast, demonstrators in the nation’s capital have garnered attention, setting up a little more than two blocks away from the White House at downtown Washington’s McPherson Square. Here’s what some of the District’s resident Occupiers had to say about the movement when The Root visited…

The independent film industry has been buzzing about Pariah since it premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Based on director Dee Rees’ 2007 award-winning short film, Pariah is the feature-length, coming-of-age story of a young woman living in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her parents, Audrey and Arthur (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell), and younger sister,…

On Nov. 5, 2011, The Root hosted a celebration to toast the influential young African Americans on The Root 100 list. At the event, held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., we talked to a number of honorees — including NAACP President Ben Jealous and Black Girls Rock! founder Beverly Bond —…

Oct. 21, Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes announced that she would be stepping down at the end of the year. During an “Open for Questions” Q&A session moderated by The Root at the White House, our Washington reporter, Cynthia Gordy, asked Barnes to weigh in on the legacy…

The White House was “Open for Questions” Thursday, Oct. 20, when senior White House officials Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes sat down with The Root’s Cynthia Gordy to answer questions from audience members and our Twitter followers and Facebook fans about the American Jobs Act and what the president is doing to combat poverty. Find…

Filmmaker Obatala Mawusi said that the days he spent documenting the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City were “eye-opening.” In particular, the diversity he saw among the protesters belied the images of the movement in mainstream media. In early October 2011, Mawusi spoke to some of the black participants about why the Occupy…