Free Republic

It all began with a speech at the Democratic National Convention during which a political newcomer named Barack Obama introduced himself as "a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him." It was July 2004, and that was so very long ago. Since then Obama has convincingly shown that America is more than willing to carve out a place for him. Along the way he has rewritten the book on campaign financing and fostered hope for a new brand of American politics. "That's what this election is about. Do we participate in a...

Decision '08: Barack Obama is the first African-American presidential candidate of a major political party. It is a historic accomplishment. Unfortunately for us, it's his only accomplishment.As Martin Luther King might put it, we have been to the mountaintop and seen the promised land. But having taken another giant step towards true equality and a genuinely color-blind society, we hope Sen. Obama and John McCain will be treated equally in the press. Politics ain't beanbag, as someone once said, and we hope that attacks on Obama's leftist and quasi-Marxist positions and associations will not be deflected as racist criticisms. The...

LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States, at a time when the nation's image abroad has been seriously damaged. From hundreds of supporters crowded around televisions in rural Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, to jubilant Britons writing "WE DID IT!" on the "Brits for Barack" site on Facebook, people celebrated what they called an important racial and generational milestone for the United States. "This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," said Sunila...

Evidently, Bill Clinton is in trouble with the African American community for his remarks made the other day that the Obama campaign "played the race card" on him after South Carolina. This didn't sit well with Representative James Clyburn (D-SC), the Democratic House Whip and influential African American: called the former president's behavior during the campaign "bizarre:" In an interview with The New York Times late Thursday, Mr. Clyburn said Mr. Clinton’s conduct in this campaign had caused what might be an irreparable breach between Mr. Clinton and an African-American constituency that once revered him.“When he was going through his...

The small barren courtyard that separates the apartment buildings of Dwan Dillard and Mohamed Adin in Northwest Roanoke might as well be an ocean, so deep is the dislike that the American-born black woman and the Somali Bantu refugee have of each other. "That out there is a war zone," said Dillard, whose four children live with her at Maple Grove Apartments, a blighted complex of four buildings with a total of 40 units on Pilot Street near Melrose Avenue. "The African children attack ours. They throw rocks." Adin, who lives with his wife and nine children, blames "the Americans."...

The American fight for liberty was not only the domain of John Adams and his fellow Boston patriots — although HBO's miniseries might lead us to believe that. The fight also took place much closer to home in places like Annapolis, where a recently opened archaeological exhibit at the Banneker-Douglass Museum shows how an 18th-century printmaker protested the British Stamp Act tax and how mid-19th-century freed slaves fought discrimination by purchasing brand-name canned goods and bottled libations. "They preferred national brands because of the predictability of price and guarantee of quality," says Mark Leone, founder and director of Archaeology in...

The Check Obama Can’t CashBob Parks, Intel Radio Network I’ve been tossing this about for a while, and made brief mention of it. It just took a little push off the cliff to really get me going. According to London’s Times Online,  “Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, claimed that the Democratic front-runner would ultimately disappoint the African-American community and dismissed the notion that he would be "the harbinger of a post-racial America" if he becomes the country’s first black President. “Writing in Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, Mr. Phillips suggested that guilt over transatlantic slavery was behind...

BERKELEY — The Berkeley branch of the NAACP said Tuesday its president acted inappropriately when he issued a statement last week saying Berkeley Police's sole intent "is to kill any African American that they can." The statement from Allen Jackson, the president of the Berkeley branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, came two days after Anita Gay, 51, was fatally shot Feb. 16 by Berkeley police Officer Rashawn Cummings in front of her Ward Street home. Police said Gay was shot because she had wielded a knife at family members and police. A preliminary investigation...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq , Feb. 26, 2008 – “Gas! Gas! Gas!” But for the contribution of one black American inventor, that familiar call might not echo through Army bases as soldiers train with gas masks against chemical-weapons attack. Army Capt. Christee Cuttino, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, personnel office, sings a spiritual song to the audience at the African-American/Black History Month program on Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, Feb. 21, 2008. Photo by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Similarly, the blood bank...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of the nation’s voters say they would be willing to vote for a woman for President. Seventeen percent (17%) say they would not and 11% are not sure. Results are similar when asked about voting for an African-American—73% are willing to cast such a vote, 14% are not, and 13% are not sure. Seven percent (7%) of Democrats say they would not vote for a woman. Nine percent (9%) would not vote for an African-American. Among political moderates, 12% say they would not vote for a woman. Fifteen percent (15%) would not vote for an African-American. All...

Black History Month is about informing citizens of the hurdles and heroes of America’s climb toward civil rights and equality. How interesting, then, that so many race-related political myths continue to be perpetuated by Democrats who know better...

As the mug shots of the alleged killers of NFL star Sean Taylor were shown on television, I kept wondering when we were going to see their parents step forward. I saw a couple of mothers, but their dads were missing in action. Dads matter, and it's ridiculous for us to act as if all it takes is a loving mom. Now, I don't know what it means not to have a father in your life. I'm not familiar with a mom being strung out on a crack binge. And when my parents were called to the school when...

As Sarah Kreager, 26, tried to sit down on a Baltimore City bus Tuesday, police say, a middle-schooler told her she couldn’t. When she attempted to take another seat, a middle-schooler wouldn’t let her. Finally, according to police, Kreager just sat down. She was “immediately attacked” by nine students — three females and six males — from Robert Poole Middle School. They punched and kicked her at 2:59 p.m. at the intersection of 33rd Street and Chestnut Avenue, according to Maryland Transit Administration police. Kreager was dragged off the bus and her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, attempted to get her back...

They are a longtime odd couple, Bill Cosby and Harvard’s Dr. Alvin Poussaint, and their latest campaign is nothing less than an effort to save the soul of black America... ...There is a sense of deep sadness and loss — grief — evident in both men over the tragedy that has befallen so many blacks in America. They were on “Meet the Press” for the entire hour Sunday, talking about their new book, a cri de coeur against the forces of self-sabotage titled, “Come On, People: On the Path From Victims to Victors.” There weren’t many laughs over the course...

We black Americans seem to need a major event or outrage every so often to revive our mass energies in ways that remind us of the 1960s civil rights movement. In the 1980s, we had mass arrests at the South African embassy to protest apartheid. In the 1990s, there was the Million Man March to redeem black fatherhood and proper role modeling. In 2007, we have the "Jena 6." Thousands flowed by the busload into tiny Jena, La., last week. They came to march on behalf of six black youths who were originally charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating...

Pregnant with her first child, Kandice Odom was feeling stressed. "My feet were swollen, I would get dizzy easily and it was hard for me to focus or concentrate," recalled the 22-year-old Jersey City resident. Then, after a routine doctor's visit into her sixth month of pregnancy, things got a lot more complicated. Odom's blood pressure was dangerously high and she was immediately referred to high-risk specialists at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. A decision ultimately was made to deliver her baby by Caesarean section. Simone Marie Gilliard was born June 24 weighing just 2 pounds. "She was so small....

The NAACP wants Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory to apologize for remarks he made about African American youth after last week's arrests during Fourth of July festivities in uptown. Ken White, president of the Charlotte Branch of the NAACP, on Wednesday called the mayor's comments "insensitive" and said he's concerned they painted "African American youth with a broad swath that cuts deep in many of our communities." McCrory's comments came July 5 in a letter to the city manager congratulating police on their efforts the night before, when 169 people were arrested in uptown. McCrory also wrote that "too many of...

'Bible Experience' Wins Audiobook of the Year at Secular Expo An audio Bible project took home Audiobook of the Year after beating out all its competitors at this year’s Book Expo America (BEA) 2007, which ended Sunday in New York City. Wed, Jun. 06, 2007 Posted: 10:23:10 AM EST NEW YORK – An audio Bible project took home Audiobook of the Year after beating out all its competitors at this year’s Book Expo America (BEA) 2007, which ended Sunday in New York City. Speakers on behalf of the Audio Publishing Association gave the accolade to Inspired By…The Bible Experience New...

It started with Spike Lee holding up a duplication of the USA Today sports cover story about NFL athletes and their problems with law enforcement. The story included 41 mug shots of NFL players who had been arrested in 2006 — 39 of those players were African-American. Spike Lee began the panel discussion — The Black Athlete Forum at Atlanta’s historic Morehouse College, which featured Jim Brown, Vivian Stringer, William Rhoden, Stephen A. Smith, yours truly and others — by asking Alonzo Mourning and two other professional athletes to explain whether the image was fair or unfair to black athletes....

Anti-abortion activists are reaching aggressively to draw more blacks into their movement, targeting urban communities they long have considered hostile turf. They are opening crisis pregnancy centers in minority neighborhoods, establishing partnerships with black pastors and distributing leaflets that raise suspicion about Planned Parenthood, a longtime provider of reproductive health care and abortions . Framing their cause as the new frontier in civil rights - an effort to stop "black genocide" - these activists have turned to revered names in black history. A niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s is touring the nation, speaking out against "the war...