We Live in a Democracy, Not a Theocracy

We Live in a Democracy, Not a Theocracy

It wasn’t so long ago when one of the most powerful justifications wielded in support of segregation was religious belief. Throughout the American South, state-sanctioned Jim Crow laws legally separated blacks from whites. Schools were segregated. Restaurants...
A Voting Rights Victory in Maryland

A Voting Rights Victory in Maryland

Thousands of Marylanders will regain the right to cast their ballots this election year, thanks to the state’s lawmakers. The Maryland House and Senate recently voted to override a veto by Governor Larry Hogan to ensure that ex-offenders will automatically get their...
We Still Need Black History Month

We Still Need Black History Month

Carter G. Woodson was born in Virginia, 10 years after the fall of the Confederacy. Working as a sharecropper and a miner, he rarely had time to attend school until the age of 20. But he sure made up for lost time. Woodson would devote the rest of his life to...
I’m Skipping the Oscars

I’m Skipping the Oscars

For two years in a row, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences — the organization behind the Oscars — failed to nominate a single actor or actress of color in the lead and supporting acting categories. Not one. Meanwhile, though women earned...
The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered

The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered

Right around Thanksgiving, the city of Chicago released a dash-cam video showing the cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of a Chicago Police Department officer. The very next day, the Chicago Urban League — supported by my organization, the...