On November 26, 2006 at a press conference in Los Angeles guess who said this: "We will challenge and urge all artists and comics to stop using this (n) word. What other group is subjected to such a degrading terminology?" And then guess who called for this action: We will go after TV networks, film companies and comedians and demand that they stop using the word. We will boycott sales of the DVDs of Seinfeld’s seventh season TV show. The speaker of course was Jesse Jackson. The offender who dared utter the dreaded N word was comedian Michael Richards. [Read More.]

John McCain told the NAACP and some skeptical black voters Wednesday that he will expand education opportunities, partly through vouchers for low-income children to attend private school. The likely Republican presidential nominee addressed the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest civil rights organization. [Read More.]

If Barack Obama's historic campaign to become the first black president boosts black turnout as drastically as he predicts, he could crack decades of Republican dominance across the South. That's a big "if." Still, an Associated Press analysis of U.S. Census and voting data from the past four presidential elections shows a potentially dramatic impact should Obama fulfill his pledge to elevate black participation by 30 percent. [Read More.]

The Reverend Jesse Jackson's very crude comment about wanting to cut off Barack Obama's testicles, breached a psychological levee in Black America. Yes, the remark was whispered, unbeknownst to Rev. Jackson, while his Fox News mic was live, but it was said nonetheless. And we know this is not the first time that Rev. Jackson has made a snide remark about Obama. I do not want to pretend to be inside the mind of Rev. Jackson, or any other Black political leader, but it has become evident to me, as a longtime community organizer, and as a current Democratic candidate for Congress, that Obama's campaign has brought the Civil Rights generation's chickens home to roost, finally. [Read More.]

Democrat Barack Obama received a prideful welcome from the annual NAACP convention Monday night, but in a stirring speech to the nation's oldest civil rights organization, he nonetheless insisted blacks must show greater responsibility for improving their own lives. [Read More.]

Two of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children are suing their brother, accusing him of wrongfully taking money from their parents' estates. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III allege that Dexter King took "substantial funds" out of Coretta Scott King's estate and "wrongfully appropriated" money from their father's estate. The suit, filed Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court, serves as a very public fissure in an iconic family that has always professed unity, particularly as questions have swirled around some of their financial dealings. [Read More.]

The "Norfolk 17" were honored Sunday at the church that educated them 50 years ago when six of the city's all-white public schools closed under Virginia's defiant response to court-ordered desegregation. Ten of the 14 surviving members of the Norfolk 17 — who went on to integrate the public schools, enduring isolation and their classmates' scorn — attended the service at the First Baptist Church, where they were remembered as fearless civil rights pioneers in the segregated South. [Read More.]

A Seattle-area pastor is accusing the executive director of the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs of racist comments, but the gubernatorial appointee denies the charges. Pastor Ken Hutcherson is still pursuing action against the teacher at Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington, who interrupted his Martin Luther King Day speech to voice his opposition to Hutcherson's Christian views on marriage and sexuality. Teacher George Potratz later compared Hutcherson's support for the biblical condemnation of homosexual behavior with advocacy for slavery. [Read More.]

Arlan Ettinger will never forget the response he got when he took one of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' hats to a meeting at the Apollo Theater in New York. "It was a fairly plain-looking black hat. And then I said it was Rosa Parks'. And their mouths just opened up without saying a word and tears flowed," Ettinger said. "It was a very, very powerful moment. You could see the impact this woman has had on everyone." [Read More.]

Segments of Americans are gearing up to oppose Senator Barack Obama because they fear he will be more considerate of the debt America owes to Blacks. Anti-Obama whites, in particular, are concerned he’ll get into the White House and put Blacks on track for “a reparations gravy train.” CNN debate moderator Anderson Cooper put Black Reparations on track to be a part of the presidential dialogue during the South Carolina Primaries. [Read More.]

National bestselling author of Letters to Young Black Women, Daniel Whyte III, with his wife, Meriqua, in their second book to young black women titled, 7 Things Young Black Women do to Mess up Their Lives, outline the seven most common mistakes young black women are making today that is causing them to go down the wrong path for their lives. “The truth of the matter is,” Whyte says in the introduction, “many young black women have never been taught and trained in the right way. Many have never been taught how to carry themselves like ladies—with dignity, class and grace. Many have never been taught how to be tough while at the same time remain humble. Many have never been taught how to be strong-minded and not silly-minded, so they fall a part at the slightest misfortune that comes across their path.” [Read More.]

Lt. Col. Charles "Chuck" Dryden, one of the first of the pioneering black World War II pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, has died. He was 87. Dryden died Tuesday in Atlanta of natural causes, said Roger Neal, a spokesman for the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta. Dryden was on the museum's board of directors. "He was not just a part of American history; he helped to make it," museum founder Nick Snider said Thursday. [Read More.]

The digital divide between blacks and whites is fast disappearing. The hip-hop generation, often portrayed as rebellious, has tremendous respect for its elders. Prejudice persists, but most blacks are optimistic about their future. Those are among the findings of one of the largest surveys ever taken of black Americans and to be released Friday. [Read More.]

Race and abortion politics will merge Thursday when a group of African-American pastors, led by the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., march on the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters to demand that candidates refuse donations from Planned Parenthood. The reason: They believe that Planned Parenthood allows racist donors to designate that their money go to fund abortions of blacks. Planned Parenthood has outlined a $10 million campaign to fund candidates who support abortion. [Read More.]

Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow wrote an article in Sunday's edition about an increase in racist and white supremacist activity, mainly on the Internet, since Sen. Barack Obama clinched the Democratic Party's nomination for president. "I haven't seen this much anger in a long, long time," Billy Roper, 36, who runs a group called White Revolution in Russellville, Ark, told the Post. [Read More.]

Sixty years after enrolling in law school and stepping into history, Silas Hunt has finally received his degree. Hunt, who was the first Black student to enroll at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville since Reconstruction, died of tuberculosis before earning his degree. However, the university has bestowed a posthumous degree in his name. Law school Dean Cynthia Nance said the college wanted to honor Hunt as the 60th anniversary of his enrollment came this year.  [Read More]

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 90 percent of whites in the country are "comfortable" with a black president, while fewer whites, about two-thirds, said they would be "entirely comfortable." The poll seeks to explore attitudes about race as Sen. Barack Obama ramps up his historic run to become the nation's first black president. [Read More]