FIFTY YEARS AFTER HENRIETTA LACKS DIED OF CERVICAL CANCER IN THE “COLORED” WARD AT JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL IN 1951, HER DAUGHTER FINALLY GOT A CHANCE TO SEE THE LEGACY SHE HAD UNKNOWINGLY LEFT TO SCIENCE. MS. LACKS-PULLUM GASPED. “OH GOD,” SHE SAID. ...
Posted Tuesday, February 2nd 2010 at 10:29PM
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CNN broadcast the entire event LIVE.
MSNBC braodcast the entire event and replayed it again later ("with their pants down" said Jon Stewart).
Fox News began broadcasting it but stopped when they realized it wasn't going their way.
Here ...
Posted Tuesday, February 2nd 2010 at 9:13AM
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THE MUNDANE LUNCHEONETTE REMINDS US THAT A CATACLYSMIC SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION TOOK PLACE OVER THE RIGHT TO BE ORDINARY. IT WAS HERE, AT THIS LUNCHEONETTE COUNTER, THAT FOUR 17 YEAR OLD FRESHMEN AT THE ALL-BLACK AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF N ...
Posted Monday, February 1st 2010 at 7:45PM
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“THEY HEAR THE STORY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING AND ROSA PARKS. BUT THE IMMEDIACY OF IT, WHAT IT WOULD HAVE FELT LIKE, HOW HUMILIATING IT WAS, HOW UNFAIR IT WAS EVERY DAY, I THINK THE EMOTIONAL PART OF THAT IS FADING. I’M GLAD TO RESTORE IT, TO TRY TO H ...
Posted Monday, February 1st 2010 at 7:24PM
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“THE COOL THING ABOUT HIM IS THAT ANYBODY WHO HAS TREPIDATION ABOUT THE SUBJECT, HE IS INSTANTLY DISARMING, SO HE GETS PEOPLE TO OPEN UP A LOT ABOUT IT, THOUGH THEY NORMALLY WOULDN’T. THERE IS AN ASSUMPTION WHEN IT’S A BLACK PERSON TALKING ABOUT RAC ...
Posted Saturday, January 30th 2010 at 10:28AM
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“WE LONGED FOR A HOME LIKE HERS. THERE WE ALWAYS FOUND SWEET BALSAM FOR OUR TROUBLES. SHE WAS SO LOVING, SO SYMPATHIZING! SHE ALWAYS MET US WITH A SMILE AND LISTENED WITH PATIENCE TO ALL OUR SORROWS. SHE SPOKE SO HOPEFULLY THAT UNCONSCIOUSLY, THE ...
Posted Friday, January 29th 2010 at 10:42AM
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“IT WAS THE FIRST TIME SINCE MY CHILDHOOD THAT I HAD EXPERIENCED ANY REAL HAPPINESS. THE DARKEST CLOUD THAT HUNG OVER MY LIFE HAD ROLLED AWAY. WHATEVER SLAVERY MIGHT DO TO ME, IT COULD NOT SHACKLE MY CHILDREN.”
“My mind was made up,” ...
Posted Thursday, January 28th 2010 at 4:22PM
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“MY UNCLE PHILLIP, WHO WAS A CARPENTER, HAD VERY SKILLFULLY MADE A CONCEALED TRAP-DOOR. TO THIS HOLE I WAS CONVEYED AS SOON AS I ENTERED THE HOUSE. THE AIR WAS STIFLING. THE DARKNESS TOTAL. I COULD SLEEP QUITE COMFORTABLY ON ONE SIDE BYT THE SL ...
Posted Wednesday, January 27th 2010 at 1:57PM
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“READER, BE ASSURED THIS NARRATIVE IS NO FICTION,” HARRIET JACOBS WROTE IN THE INTRODUCTION TO HER 1861 MEMOIR ‘INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL.’ “I AM AWARE THAT SOME OF MY ADVENTURES MAY SEEM INCREDIBLE. BUT THEY ARE, NEVERTHELESS, STRICT ...
Posted Monday, January 25th 2010 at 10:26PM
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IN HIS NARROW, MALICIOUS WAY, ROBERTSON IS MAKING A FIRST COMMANDMENT ARGUMENT. BUT IT IS A FUNDAMENTALIST VIEW. IT’S SO UNKIND AND SELF-RIGHTEOUS—AND DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND TO CENTURIES OF THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ON SUFFERING BY THINKERS FROM AUGUSTIN ...
Posted Sunday, January 24th 2010 at 12:03PM
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HOW LOUD DO THE ALARMS HAVE TO GET? THERE IS AN ECONOMIC EMERGECNY IN THE COUNTRY WITH MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF AMERICANS RIDDLED WITH FEAR AND ANXIETY AS THEY STRUGGLE WITH LONG-TERM JOBLESSNESS, HOME FORECLOSURES, PERSONAL BANKRUPTCIES AND DWINDL ...
Posted Saturday, January 23rd 2010 at 7:33AM
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ELYRIA, Ohio — PRESIDENT OBAMA, STRIKING A NO-RETREAT, NO-SURRENDER POSTURE IN THE WAKE OF HIS PARTY’S HUMILIATING DEFEAT IN THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE RACE THIS WEEK, VOWED TO PRESS ON WITH HIS EXPANSIVE DOMESTIC AGENDA—INCLUDING A HEALTH CARE OVERHAU ...
Posted Saturday, January 23rd 2010 at 7:32AM
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WASHINGTON—THE SUPREME COURT HAS HANDED LOBBYISTS A POTENT NEW WEAPON. A LOBBYIST CAN NOW TELL ANY ELECTED OFFICIAL: IF YOU VOTE WRONG, MY COMPANY, LABOR UNION, OR INTEREST GROUP WILL SPEND UNLIMITED SUMS EXPLICITLY ADVERTISING AGAINST YOUR RE-ELECT ...
Posted Friday, January 22nd 2010 at 8:19PM
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CONSERVATIVES ARE DELIRIOUS. “WATERBOARDING WINS!” EXULTS THE NATIONAL REVIEW, NOTING THAT BROWN “SPOKE OUT FORCEFULLY IN FAVOR OF ENHANCED INTERROGATION.” MICHAEL GRAHAM CALLS IT A “ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME, NEVER-SAW-IT-COMING, DANCE-IN-THE-STREETS VI ...
Posted Wednesday, January 20th 2010 at 12:21PM
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“THE TRIUMPH OF THE BOOK—AND THEIR LIVES—IS THAT RACE AND RELIGION ARE TRANSCENDED IN THESE INTERWOVEN HISTORIES BY FAMILY LOVE, THE SHEER FORCE OF A MOTHER’S WILL AND HER UNSHAKABLE INSISTENCE THAT ONLY TWO THINGS REALLY MATTERED: SCHOOL AND CHURCH. ...
Posted Monday, January 18th 2010 at 5:41PM
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PORT-AU-PRINCE — WITH THEIR CHURCHES FLATTENED, THEIR PRIESTS KILLED AND THEIR BIBLES LOST AMID THE RUBBLE OF THEIR HOMES, DESPERATE HAITIANS PRAYED IN THE STREETS ON SUNDAY, RAISING THEIR ARMS IN THE AIR AND ASKING GOD TO EASE THEIR GRIEF.
Outs ...
Posted Monday, January 18th 2010 at 10:30AM
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“WE WERE ON THE VERGE OF LOSING AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE AMERICAN STORY,” SAID THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL TRUST, WHICH DURING THE LAST TWO YEARS, HAS AIDED THE RENOVATION OF 33 ROSENWALD SCHOOLS. A FORMER STUDENT, NOW 92, SAID, “LOCAL WHITES ON ...
Posted Sunday, January 17th 2010 at 5:55PM
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SILENCE. QUIET. STILLNESS. OPENNESS. LISTENING. THESE WORDS DESCRIBE THE EXPERIENCE OF SOMEONE WHO IS BEGINNING TO TASTE THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE WITHIN. YOU ARE INVITED TO AN INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP IN THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN PRACTICE OF CENT ...
Posted Sunday, January 17th 2010 at 2:00PM
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THERE IS NOW A BUBBLING DISCONTENT ON THE RIGHT AND, IN PARTICULAR, AMONG WHITES, WHICH IS AIMED AT PRESIDENT OBAMA. MOST WHITES THINK THAT OBAMA’S FIRST YEAR AS PRESIDENT HAS BEEN MAINLY A FAILURE. A PLURALITY OF WHITES EVEN SAID THAT OBAMA HAS B ...
Posted Saturday, January 16th 2010 at 11:41AM
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IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI, MANY AMERICANS ARE REACHING FOR THEIR CELLPHONES TO MAKE A DONATION VIA TEXT MESSAGE. AND PLENTY OF THEM ARE THEN SPREADING THE WORD TO OTHERS. THE AMERICAN RED CROSS SAID THAT IT HAS RAIISED MORE THAN $ ...
Posted Friday, January 15th 2010 at 11:39AM
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