Lack of Racial Diversity Harms White Students

Until the 1950s, racial segregation in public schools was the norm throughout the United States. In Topeka, Kan., a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven...

In Memory Of Martin Luther King

In his elegant little book, “Finally Comes the Poet,” Walter Brueggemann writes that the task of the preacher is to be “a voice that shatters settled reality and evokes new possibilities.” If he is right about that, then no preacher in the last...

Racism And Memory: I Am What I Remember

“Not that I’m not disturbed by all the proud bigots, but it is alarming to think that everyone is walking around harboring all this ill will, and it takes a few drinks or a bad day to unleash it.” — Richmond Times Dispatch worker, on Mel Gibson...

Race Denial Is a River in the Heart of America

A column in the Tennessean generated 70 negative e-mails from the race-denying residents of Tennessee. The Nashville newspaper carried a statement about the defeat of Democratic senatorial candidate Harold Ford, in which I wrote: “Tennesseans looked at the...