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October 2008
- Oregon Students Confess to Hanging Obama Effigy
  
  ABC News | Oct 1, 08 6:31 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A small Christian school in Oregon has suspended four students who confessed to hanging a cardboard Barack Obama effigy from a tree on campus, ABC News reports. Few students saw the cutout, which was hastily removed after a faculty member found it last week. It was an "abhorrent act" that does not reflect the institution, the president of George Fox University said. More »
September 2008
- Spike Refights WWII (and Other Directors)
  
  Salon | Sep 25, 08 8:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Spike Lee hopes to set the record straight about the African American presence in WWII—but he also hopes to tell a good story. His new film, Miracle at St. Anna, tells the fictional tale of Buffalo Soldiers trapped in a Tuscan town, in his own inimitable style. "I made the decision that everyone speak their native language," he says of the dialogue. "This film is about barriers, language, culture, all that stuff. " More »
- Debate Allows Host Ole Miss to Show Progress on Race
  
  Los Angeles Times | Sep 25, 08 10:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Assuming the presidential debate happens tomorrow, host University of Mississippi gets to show the nation it’s moved beyond its racially tinged past, the Los Angeles Times reports. The school, known for deadly riots when the first black student enrolled in the 1960s and controversy over Confederate flags at football games in the ‘90s, spent $5.5 million to prep for the public-relations opportunity. More »
- 'R' Word in Play in Pa.—and It's Not 'Recession'
  
  Philadelphia Daily News | Sep 22, 08 1:15 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Joe Biden must have been shocked when he met Carolyn Bauer in a Philadelphia diner. Bauer told Biden she’d never vote for his running mate. “It’d be disgusting to get a man named Barack Obama as president,” she said. “No way!” Racism is a real factor in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Daily News reports, and though it’s usually more subtle, it could hurt Obama come November. More »
- Obama May Get Out the Anti-Gay Marriage Vote
  
  New York Times | Sep 21, 08 4:04 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Black voters energized by Barack Obama’s candidacy may also support a Californian ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, the New York Times reports, though Obama himself opposes the ban. Opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 say African Americans will play a crucial role, and each side is trying to win over black voters. More »
- Mich. Letters Taunt Obama; Racist Vandals Strike Sign
  
  Associated Press | Sep 17, 08 3:53 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Secret Service is investigating anti-Obama letters sent to a local Democratic office and a business in south-central Michigan, the AP reports, even as authorities in Pittsfield Township, about 40 miles west of Detroit, say an Obama billboard was defaced with swastikas and Klan symbols overnight. One letter declares a wish Obama “gets a bullet,” while the other threatens a business supporting the campaign. More »
August 2008
- Black Museums Fight for Funding
  
  Portfolio | Aug 31, 08 9:32 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - As Barack Obama’s fundraisers pull in huge sums of money for his historic candidacy, African-American museums across the country are struggling for cash and visitors, Portfolio reports. Part of the problem may be the flagging economy, but for the likes of the National Slavery Museum, the subject matter can deter donors; others say the black community has yet to develop a tradition of giving to such efforts. More »
- After 43 Years, LBJ's Dream Is Realized Tonight
  
  New York Times | Aug 28, 08 10:12 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - As Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination tonight, author Robert A. Caro will be remembering another speech: Lyndon Johnson's 1965 address to Congress urging the passage of the Voting Rights Act. In that speech, which reduced Martin Luther King to tears, LBJ "adopted the great anthem of the civil rights movement," calling on legislators to give blacks full enfranchisement and insisting, "We shall overcome." More »
- McCain Cleverly Made Race Factor: Emanuel
  
  Politico | Aug 27, 08 4:29 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - John McCain’s campaign managed to slip the issue of race into the presidential election, Democratic heavyweight Rahm Emanuel said today. “They got it through customs," Emanuel said at a Politico-hosted roundtable, characterizing the Republicans’ tactic of injecting race with reaction to a perceived offense by Barack Obama. "They did a good job bringing up a topic they wanted brought up,” Emanuel continued. More »
- Yeah, She Made History—What About the Guy Who Won?
  
  New York Times | Aug 27, 08 7:37 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Last night's Hillaryfest was the culmination of a months-long homage to the New York senator's "historic" achievement of almost winning a major party's presidential nomination. But it's odd, notes Alessandra Stanley, that while an "also-ran" has made her candidacy a milestone, there's been little mention of the "arguably more remarkable breakthrough" of the man who actually won the primary. More »
- It's Not Race That's Holding Him Back
  
  New York Times | Aug 25, 08 12:12 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama goes into this week's convention in Denver with only the slimmest of leads—or, as some polls suggest, trailing John McCain. In a year when it's widely assumed that any Democratic candidate should be a shoo-in, many in the press have suggested that Obama's race is costing him support. Not so, writes Matt Bai in the New York Times , who says that the candidate "faces genuine obstacles that are more salient than skin color." More »
- Some Blacks Think Obama Could Threaten Progress
  
  New York Times | Aug 25, 08 8:43 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Despite being a landmark in black American history, Barack Obama’s pending nomination could stall civil rights progress, some blacks say, because his success could fuel an argument that racial divisions have been healed, the New York Times reports. The danger is “that we declare victory,” a sociologist said. “Historic as this moment is, it does not signify a major victory in the ongoing battle.” More »
- Trouble the Water Vividly Mixes Katrina, Race
  
  Salon | Aug 21, 08 5:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Trouble the Water , a new documentary, is ostensibly about Hurricane Katrina, centered around home-video footage shot during the disaster by a resident of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. But the film, which frames Kimberly Roberts’ footage within a larger context, transcends that one event to put forth a peerless discussion of race in America, Andrew O’Hehir writes in Salon. More »
- Obama May Signal The End of Black Politics
  
  New York Times | Aug 9, 08 7:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama may be the most successful black candidate in American political history, but his prominence and possible presidency could be the death knell for black politics as we know it, Matt Bai writes in the New York Times Magazine . While he's not quite the “post-racial” candidate some have touted, Obama and other up-and-coming black pols are disconnected from—and in some cases have little need for—Washington’s traditional black power structure. More »
- Clintons Still Seething Over Racist Portrayal
  
  Politico | Aug 5, 08 12:23 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Democratic primary battle ended months ago, but many in both Hillary and Bill Clinton’s circles still harbor a grudge over the way her campaign was painted as racist, Ben Smith writes in Politico. This ill will is coming back to haunt presumptive nominee Barack Obama as he grapples with the McCain campaign's suggestion he is now playing the race card. More »
July 2008
- House Measure Apologizes for US Slavery
  
  Associated Press | Jul 29, 08 6:15 PM CDT
  
  (AP) - The House has apologized to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws. Today's resolution marks the first time Congress has ever formally apologized for America's past history of enslaving and discriminating against blacks. More »
- Move Over Jesse, This Is Obama's House
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jul 22, 08 1:01 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - If threats of castration are any indication, Barack Obama has gotten under Jesse Jackson's skin, writes Shelby Steele in the Wall Street Journal . The Illinois senator has eclipsed the reverend by effectively becoming the anti-Jackson—rather than playing off moral leverage created out of white guilt, Obama "became the first viable black presidential candidate precisely by giving up his moral leverage over whites." More »

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Stories

Oregon Students Confess to Hanging Obama Effigy

Spike Refights WWII (and Other Directors)

Debate Allows Host Ole Miss to Show Progress on Race

'R' Word in Play in Pa.—and It's Not 'Recession'

Obama May Get Out the Anti-Gay Marriage Vote

Mich. Letters Taunt Obama; Racist Vandals Strike Sign

Black Museums Fight for Funding

After 43 Years, LBJ's Dream Is Realized Tonight

McCain Cleverly Made Race Factor: Emanuel

Yeah, She Made History—What About the Guy Who Won?

It's Not Race That's Holding Him Back

Some Blacks Think Obama Could Threaten Progress

Trouble the Water Vividly Mixes Katrina, Race

Obama May Signal The End of Black Politics

Clintons Still Seething Over Racist Portrayal

House Measure Apologizes for US Slavery

Move Over Jesse, This Is Obama's House