Denmark Vesey was a terrorist…

But Dylann Roof is not? Published in BlackCommentator.com June 25, 2015   Dylann Roof’s act of terrorism still requires that he gets due process under U.S. law. Technically and journalistically, you have to refer to him as a suspect—even though there were eyewitnesses to the massacre and damning evidence on his computer. When talking about […]

This is some ruff stuff

For me, the most emotional part of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church is the heroic and compassionate action of Tywanza Sanders. When Dylann Roof chose Sanders’ 87 year aunt as his first shooting victim, Sanders asked to be shot instead. This young brother, only 26 years old, had graduated from college last year–he had his whole […]

Something about those pools

Published BlackCommentator, July 23, 2009. When Pools Reflect Racism Recently, the Fairgrounds Park race riot of 1949 was acknowledged. The riot erupted when the City of St. Louis attempted to integrate the pool. For the occasion of the 60th anniversary, I interviewed civil rights activist Robert Gammon, one of the black kids who got the […]