The myth of the absent Black father

If you confront any conservative pundit or politician with the reality of institutional racism, you will almost certainly hear about how absent Black fathers are the cause of most racial disparities—not the government, not society, not nearly half a millennium of enslavement, segregation, and disenfranchisement—but Black fathers. According to them, it is the irresponsibility of …

Read more

Black, LGBTQ and influential

Bayard Rustin was an expert community organizer and played key role in the March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.” He mentored Dr. King and taught him tactics of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience.  His philosophy was inspired by Gandhi and labor leader A. Philip Randolph. Arrested …

Read more

Segregation isn’t ancient history; it hasn’t even really gone away yet

Anyone who’s attended school after the 1960s was taught that segregation was abolished thanks to the efforts of Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists. Social studies books cite Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia as sweeping Supreme Court decisions that ushered in full integration across the nation. The conclusion of …

Read more