Current Events: Waterboarding and U.S. History
Some high U.S. officials claim not be aware of it, and Judge Michael Mukasey, the President's choice for attorney general, prefers to equivocate, but water boarding has long been a form of torture that causes excruciating pain and can lead to death. It forces water into prisoner's lungs, usually over and over again. The Spanish Inquisition in the late 1400s used this torture to uncover and punish heretics, and then in the early 1500s Spain's inquisitors carried it overseas to root out heresy in the New World... {Read more}

History: Race and Racism in the Scottsboro Era (1930's)
This case of African American youths caught in the web of southern injustice, sentenced to death, thrown into a prison system that refused to recognize their humanity or their inalienable rights, shocked citizens of this country and people all over the world. At home Scottsboro intruded into the cultural, political and intellectual development of millions, particularly whites who had hardly given racial matters much thought... {Read more}

Current Events: Blood, Race and Cherokee Sovereignty
As President Bill Clinton and others arrived in Selma, Alabama for the 42nd anniversary of the "bloody Sunday" march that prodded Congress to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Cherokee Nation chose a lower road. Members voted overwhelmingly for an amendment to their constitution that revokes citizenship rights for 2,800 members because their ancestors included people of African descent... {Read more}

History: Africans and Indians: Only in America
Alex Haley's successful tracking of Kunte Kinte gave the hunt for African ancestors a needed shove forward. But driven by their stubborn will and searching eye, as researchers fanned out in pursuit of African connections, another vision appeared. First as a recurring distraction, then a source of wonder, geological detectives stumbled on Native American ancestors. Alex Haley was hardly alone when he also discovered Native American roots to his family tree... {Read more}

Current events: President Hugo Chavez and the Rise of Black Indian Power
Like four-fifths of Venezuelans today, Hugo Chavez was born of poor Black and Indian parents. Since the days of Columbus, descendants of the Spanish conquerors have claimed the privilege of governing Latin America. They have effectively barred Indigenous people from high office. Chavez stands as a direct challenge to white domination of South American governments... {Read more}

Tribute: Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition
Harry Belafonte did more than speak truth to a President who lied to justify an invasion that has taken the lives of more than 2,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. He became part of a proud African American tradition Frederick Douglass started in 1848—opposition to a President who lies and sacrifices American lives in order to promote and justify wars of aggression... {Read more}