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…
Because I shook John Lewis’ hand
Some of you who have seen the movie Ocean’s 13 may remember the line near the end when George Clooney’s character, Danny Ocean, confronts Al Pacino’s character, Willie Bank, with this gem: “You should know better. You shook Sinatra’s hand.”…
Kendi’s latest project is to teach kids about Malcolm X
In his latest project, Ibram X. Kendi is on a mission to help the next generation know and understand the work of Malcolm X. Kendi already is known as a modern-day interpreter of the present moment through a historical lens,…
To revitalize the church in America, look to the working poor
There is an old trick used by religious leaders to prevent the possibility of questioning what they say: The leader or pastor comes into a meeting declaring they have a word from God. Then this pastor will state some proposal and…
How MLK’s questions became my questions too
When Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in April 1963, I was a sophomore Bible major at a church-related college in the South, studying to become a preacher. None of my professors suggested that I read…
Fighting for our lives – and saving ourselves from ‘this corrupt generation’
In confronting white nationalist terror and the Washington-based bigotry that has invited it into the mainstream, we must be both fierce in our struggle but also prayerful in our devotion. We must call this nation to repent for its sins and call it too to save itself from this “corrupt generation.”
For whites observing Black History Month, remember what seat you’re sitting in
White navel-gazing is not the proper orientation toward Black History Month. We’ve got to do the needed self-examination, but we are not the center of the narrative. Using the work of blacks to put ourselves back at the center of the story is not the right strategy. But while reading all that black history, it does help to know what seat we are sitting in.
It’s time to abandon reason
By Greg Jarrell On Monday, Dec. 28, Timothy McGinty, district attorney of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced what everyone suspected, and many hoped would not be true — that there will be no charges in the slaying of 12-year old Tamir…
On reading Malcolm X’s autobiography
Marking the 50th anniversary of its publication Malcolm X’s Autobiography was the first book that scared me. Here I was, in the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, secretly abandoning my pietist-revivalist rearing in favor of the more verdant fields…