(Special to The Root) — In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act and called it a “triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.” But this past election season we were back on the battlefield, waging a nonviolent struggle against the greatest wave…

(Special to The Root) — Continuing their historical practice of working together to address issues of concern to the African-American community, the NAACP, National Urban League, United Negro College Fund and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund are working cooperatively to improve educational opportunities for all students. This week we will run op-eds by the…

(Special to The Root) — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently made a disturbing revelation about the New York City Police Department’s policy of stopping pedestrians and forcibly searching their bodies for weapons. He revealed that police do not actually expect to find any weapons. In the wake of new data showing that New…

Seventeen years ago, I was an organizer in Mississippi. And I was scared. We were planning a march to stop the governor from turning a public, historically black university, Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, into a prison. Byron De La Beckwith had just been put in prison for killing Medgar Evers — the…

In the past decade alone, 880,000 African Americans died because they did not have access to meaningful health care. For people of color, life is, on average, shorter. Illness is more prevalent, and disability is more common. We live in a system that provides limited opportunities for communities of color to access health services, with…

After years of heartbreak and disappointment, Troy Davis is finally getting a chance to have evidence heard in his case after being denied a fair trial since he was arrested almost two decades ago. It should never have taken the American justice system this long to act. Troy Davis was unjustly convicted and sentenced to…

As Father’s Day approaches, we often reflect on the male role models, father figures and patriarchs who are instrumental in our lives. We hold them in high regard because they possess qualities we admire: courage and strength, perseverance and determination, humility and grace. To DeJuan Correira, his “Uncle Troy” embodies all of these attributes. A…

As the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor get under way this week on Capitol Hill, some members of the Senate have a major decision to make about their identity and their future. Will they continue to advance divisive politics rooted in America’s sad history of racism and exclusion? Or can they…