| Jul 13, 2016 | Rights / DemocracyWhen I heard about the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I thought back to another name etched into American history: Dred Scott. In 1857, the Supreme Court was tasked with deciding whether Scott, an African American man born into slavery,...
| Sep 2, 2015 | Rights / DemocracyRick Smith hosts a daily radio talk show based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which bills itself as the place “where working people come to talk.” Smith makes it his business to know the pulse of the labor movement. But he admits to one area where his...
| Aug 24, 2015 | Rights / DemocracyThe late civil rights activist Julian Bond, who passed away this month, lived his life as a tireless champion of the oppressed and maligned, a battle-worn warrior for civil rights, equality, and social justice. Bond fought the good fight, and at the still-youthful age...
| Jan 7, 2015 | Economy / BusinessGrowing up in Texas, I learned that God and guns were important, but football — well, football was the real religion. So I can understand the hyperbolic exuberance of a radio hypester in Montgomery, Alabama, who declared that the December 20 Camellia Bowl was “going...
| Aug 13, 2014 | Rights / DemocracyFifty years ago, shortly after the Ku Klux Klan abducted and murdered civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, I was sitting in one of Starkville, Mississippi’s few black-owned cafes when Police Chief Thomas Josey stormed in and...
