The killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson, MO has aroused a lot of emotions. When a grand jury refused to indict officer Darren Wilson for the killing, some of those emotions spilled over into rioting and violence. I find myself conflicted about the entire situation. On… Read More »
I just read an online article that defended Donald Sterling’s right to continue as the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers basketball team after his racist rant against African Americans was made public. The author presented it as a free speech issue. “[T]he last time I checked this is still a ‘free country’, where… Read More »
In July of 2012, Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson had planned to be married in the church they attended, First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, Mississippi. All the arrangements had been made, the invitations for the wedding sent out, and Pastor Stan Weatherford was ready to perform the ceremony. Then some members of the congregation who… Read More »
The man of the hour as the Superbowl approaches has been Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman. He’s been all over TV, talked about and interviewed over and over. He’s probably gotten almost as much attention as future Hall of Famer, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. For an obscure defensive player that I, for one, don’t… Read More »
One of the things I like is collecting photographs that have some element of historical or artistic interest for me personally. From time to time, I’ll post some of these photos here. “Ella Watson” by Gordon Parks, 1942 In 1942, groundbreaking African-American photographer Gordon Parks went to work for the Farm Security Administration in Washington,… Read More »
In the aftermath of an election in which President Obama received 93 per cent of the black vote, radio show host and author Michael Brown, a self-proclaimed white evangelical, wrote an “open letter to black evangelicals” accusing them of voting to reelect the president out of “blind allegiance to the Democratic party.” He goes on… Read More »
In my article on The NAACP’s Divorce from the Black Church (published in the Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News under the title “Gay marriage issue splits black church and NAACP”) I made the claim that most African American Christians will stand firm on God’s word, and against same-sex relationships. I believe that will be the case. But… Read More »
This article was first published in the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News print (7/15/12) and online (7/14/12) editions under the title “Gay marriage issue splits black church and NAACP.” As I was growing up in the segregated South of the 1950s, the NAACP was an important part of my world. I heard about it in school –… Read More »
Was Trayvon Martin an inoffensive teenager who was savagely gunned down as he walked innocently down the street? Or was he a thug who was responsible for his own death because he attacked George Zimmerman, who then killed him in self defense? I have been surprised at the number of comments on the web that have taken… Read More »