Nation
Fed Up and Fired Up: William Barber’s Latest Acts of Witness
Rev. Barber got hot during his Martin Luther King Day address at Tennessee State University. About 19 minutes into his sermon, he ripped Vice President Pence for equating King’s agenda with Trump’s and called out G.O.P. politicians, including Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, who was sitting directly behind him. Barber took off his coat then, signifying he was warmed up. A couple minutes later, he amped up his truth attacks again. (Click on 28:40 below if your time is tight.)
The Groveland Four’s Story Bends Toward Justice
Last week, Florida’s governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, accepted the unanimous recommendation of the state’s clemency board and issued pardons to the “Groveland Boys”—four African Americans—Earnest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin—who were wrongly accused of raping a white women seventy years ago. Back then, they became victims of Jim Crow injustice and, in particular, of a Southern sheriff, Willis McCall, who made “Bull Connor look like Barney Fife.” To quote Gilbert King who uncovered quashed evidence collected by the FBI of McCall’s crimes against the Groveland Four, including the extra-judicial killing of Samuel Shepherd and attempted murder of Walter Irwin. King’s book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (2012) informed a citizens’ movement that pressed Florida’s officials to act.
Devil in the Grove (Redux)
In 2013 I published an essay (sparked by Obama’s public responses to the killing of Trayvon Martin) that took in Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove–the book behind last week’s pardons of the Groveland Four. What follows is a Devil-centric excerpt from that 2013 post.
Against “Affirmation”
Nathan Osborne’s empathetic angles on yearnings of this generation of “teentwenties” reminded your editor to check 4thWaveNow–a website that provides a forum for parents and other allies who resist the credo of “affirmation” that pushes young people with gender trouble to pursue medical “solutions” to their problems.
After Action Report & Alliance Memories
“Tom ate trouble for desert.” That was Sarah Martin—former head of the Grant Houses’ tenant association—lauding her late comrade Tom DeMott at his Memorial, which was held at St. Mary’s Church in Harlem on December 1rst.
Love Stories: Black and White, His and Hers, Then and Now
Bob Liss gives love for love in this review of Earl Monroe’s history of basketball…
Gelernter the Galoot
Many years ago, I reviewed one of David Gelernter’s books for my college newspaper. It was, and remains, one of the worst books I have ever read, so poorly written and badly reasoned that it stayed in my mind more vividly than a lot of better books did. Bad books have a way of haunting us, which is probably why we hate them so. The worst movie you see in your life will be gone from your head by the next morning, but the worst book you were forced to read in school will be with you till you take your last breath.
The world and I moved on, but David Gelernter did not stop writing. Now he’s written an essay for The Wall Street Journal in which he claims to have solved the mystery of why “the left” hates Donald Trump so much.
Anchoring an Argument: Leo Chavez’s “Anchor Babies and the Challenge of Birthright Citizenship”
Donald Trump is under the impression that he can abolish birthright citizenship at will — more evidence, were any needed, that he should have taken up Khizr Kahn’s offer to borrow his pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution. Scott McLemee first posted the article below five months ago, but, as he notes, “now is the time to drum up readership for it…”
What America Looks Like (Redux)
See the trailer for What America Looks Like below. Dennis Myers’ documentary about the first two days of the Trump administration, complete with swearing in and swearing, will play at the “Cinema on the Edge” festival in Santa Monica this weekend. If you’re going to be in that town on Sunday around 1:00 p.m., you can see it on a big screen (and get a ticket discount with this code FRIEND10). Or you can watch it online here.