Martin Luther King Jr.’s claim that “a riot is the language of the unheard” has been invoked by apologists for every race riot dating to the ’60s. Fire and rage make for great television — cable news certainly thinks so….
It was inevitable that George Floyd’s death would spark protests against police brutality and that mendacity would characterize the attendant media coverage. True to form, the press affected dismay when the demonstrations devolved into violence, yet reported the riots with…
America has a rich, long history of inspiring speeches and eloquently written documents. As I sat here contemplating this history, it became apparent to me that most of those words are out of sync with the values of our country…
On a hot and humid July 1964 night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, there occurred a series of unheralded but nevertheless pivotal events in the parallel histories of the civil rights movement and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These events…
“Bombshell” best describes David Garrow’s lengthy piece “The Troubling Legacy of Martin Luther King.” The article not only obliterates what we think we know about one of the most beloved figures in American history, it, like a bombshell, hurts people….
Two different men, two different times. But their respective message on racial equality is the same. Here is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963: In a sense we’ve come to our…
Politics is cyclical. Republicans will not always hold the White House. Democrats will be back. If only they realized now the threats to our democracy that presently are being institutionalized. Threats that will endanger them and their future leaders terribly…
It was hot. June 7, 1968. To be seventeen years old was to be awed by the history of the moment. And tearful. Two days earlier my teenage political hero, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, had been assassinated. Everyone in America looked…
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Those were the words of…
