America did not merely criminalize a plant. It criminalized a people. Before “marijuana” became America’s most politically weaponized slang term, the plant was widely known as cannabis — used in medicine, industrial hemp and natural remedies. But in the 1930s,…
The criminalization of the White House
American history has known flawed, scandal-ridden and even disgraced presidents. But no modern American president has accumulated the sheer volume of legal exposure, ethical controversy, civil judgments, criminal proceedings, public deception and democratic instability surrounding one individual quite like Donald…
Malcolm X at 101
If Malcolm X were alive in 2026, he would likely be less shocked by America’s contradictions than many Americans are. Why? Because Malcolm spent his life warning us. Born May 19, 1925, Malcolm X evolved from a street survivor into…
Jeff Landry’s ‘failed narrative’
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry recently dismissed the idea that racism remains structurally relevant in Louisiana politics, calling it a “failed narrative.” A failed narrative? In Louisiana? A state where African Americans make up nearly one-third of the population, yet political…
The Republican Party’s Blackout
History has a strange way of repeating itself, especially when America refuses to learn from it. In 2026, the Republican Party is facing a political mirror it can no longer avoid. Every Black Republican currently serving in the U.S. House…
Ted Turner: The maverick who changed the world
There are few Americans in modern history who can say they fundamentally changed how the world watches television, experiences sports, consumes news and thinks about philanthropy. Ted Turner is one of those rare figures. Whether people agreed with his politics,…
What King Charles didn’t say about the Magna Carta
When King Charles III stood before the United States Capitol and praised the Magna Carta, he presented it as a sacred foundation of liberty — one of the great ancestors of the American Bill of Rights, constitutional democracy and the…
The Bible is not just a white man’s book
You’ve been told the Bible was a white man’s book. You’ve seen the images — pale-skinned angels, a European Jesus, blonde-haired apostles. Church walls lined with Renaissance art have shaped a quiet but powerful assumption over time, that holiness somehow…
Why Easter must reclaim its throne in American faith
There is a quiet contradiction in America, one that lives in our homes, our churches, our calendars and our consumer habits. It is the reality that the most theologically powerful moment in Christianity — the resurrection of Jesus Christ —…
A white Golden Calf in Arkansas
In the second book of the Bible, the story of the Golden Calf is a warning about what happens when people replace truth with idols of their own making. In Exodus 32:4, the Israelites fashioned a golden calf and proclaimed,…
Understanding the legacy of Roots after 50 years
As we approach the 50th anniversary of Alex Haley’s novel Roots, we are not merely commemorating a book and a subsequent television event, we are revisiting a cultural earthquake. Before the bright lights of Hollywood casting calls in 1976 —…
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr.: An American icon
This week, the nation pauses to honor the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson, an American icon whose voice shaped movements, elections, diplomacy and generations of hope. For more than six decades, Jackson stood at the intersection of faith and…