Author Paula Broadwell and retired Gen. David Petraeus are in the news again – for different reasons and with very different reactions. Broadwell, a guest speaker Tuesday at one of the best-attended Rotary Club of Charlotte meetings ever, is settling back into her life with her doctor husband and two young sons. The club’s report […]
Second acts for Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus Read More »
Cecile Kyenge is a strong woman. She has to be. As Italy’s first black cabinet minister, she has had to endure a string of repeated racist, sexist and sexually violent insults, and she has answered them with a calm that has only made her critics bolder. In the latest incident Wednesday, Italy’s far-right Forza Nuova
Italy’s immigration debate turns racist, sexist and personal Read More »
CHARLOTTE — In North Carolina, commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s dream credited past struggles while a current battle over voting laws took center stage. In an uptown Charlotte park Wednesday, the crowd used the examples of civil rights pioneers in a continuation of the Moral Monday
Past is present as North Carolina honors 1963 march and battles voting laws Read More »
My sister remembers the day – and one particular moment. To get to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1963, Joan Curtis did not have far to travel. But as part of the contingent from the Civic Interest Group (CIG), a Baltimore-based civil rights group affiliated with the Student
‘You knew things would be different’: How the March changed one family Read More »
Have the folks who jeered the President Obama stand-in at that Missouri rodeo ever heard of Bill Pickett? Pickett was an African American cowboy, inventor of the gutsy bulldogging technique, grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Pickett starred in rodeos and movies,
From rodeo clowns to voting rights, understanding race and history Read More »
CHARLOTTE — Though his name may not be as well-known as other civil-rights champions, the soft-spoken Julius Chambers fought passionately and tirelessly and got results. At his funeral service in Charlotte on Thursday, mourners remembered him, what his legacy meant, and how they could best carry on his work. As speakers, friends and those he
‘In the presence of justice’: remembering Julius Chambers Read More »
It’s not about money. Though many have made a lot off the cells of Henrietta Lacks, her surviving family members won’t see any of it. But her descendants will finally gain some control over how pieces of the poor black woman who died in Baltimore in 1951 are used in medical research. When scientists and
Family of Henrietta Lacks gains some control over her cells and – perhaps – peace Read More »
North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory hand carried chocolate-chip cookies to abortion bill protesters outside the Raleigh governor’s mansion in a let’s-make-up gesture. The surprised recipient said he told her, “‘These are for you. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.’” The cookies were returned, and it wasn’t because he forgot the milk.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory gives protesters cookies – seriously Read More »
As Anthony Weiner’s latest admission that he has a sexting problem plays out, it can only help female politicians who have hopes of high office. Enough with these guys, voters might be thinking, as reminders of male politicians who have sinned cross their minds and TV screens. Will a disgusted electorate decide that it’s time
How Weiner’s woes help and hurt Hillary Clinton Read More »
CHARLOTTE — If President Obama’s personal and heartfelt speech on race reached only the ears of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, it would have been enough. “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” the president said, leaving unsaid a parent’s dream for a child, the unspoken other side of the equation, that Trayvon
In conversations on race, everyone has to listen Read More »
