You might think it was a crime, but last week, a grand jury did not. The reference is to the case of one Jared Lafer. He is […]
Author: Leonard Pitts Jr.
It’s easy to see why they consider books dangerous
Here’s what happened when Ruby Bridges went to school in 1960. Four federal marshals escorted her. She walked through a mob of outraged white people. They called […]
You can starve an ideal only so long before you kill it altogether
Those pictures are traumatizing. That’s because they contain so much more than what’s in them, so much more than horse-mounted U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Rio […]
Activism is not a popularity contest
“He wears the clothes of a dissenter, but there’s a logo on his back.” — from “Damn It, Rose,” by Don Henley. When he died, Martin Luther […]
It’s shocking how easily it all comes back
It was a day that did not end. It went on for days, it went on for weeks, it went on for years. But then you look […]
Right-wing radicals have stated their aims. We better believe them
It’s been five years since I first speculated in this space about the end of American democracy. In doing so, I felt like a man climbing out […]
Tired of marching for what should already be ours
He said many profound things that day. He said America had given African Americans “a bad check.” He said he had come to remind the nation of […]
Skepticism can make you blind
They told them they had bad blood. What they actually had was syphilis, but the U.S. Public Health Service never shared that diagnosis with the almost 400 […]
Let’s talk about the things they will not learn
Let’s talk about the things they will not learn. “They” meaning K-12 students in Tennessee. Not that the Volunteer State is alone in passing laws and standards […]
We can’t endanger lives of the many to humor misconceptions of the few
We were almost there. That’s the most frustrating thing about the most recent announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that even those who are […]
