In 1988, Walter McMillian was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to death, charged with the1986 murder of Ronda Morrison in my hometown of Monroeville, Al. McMillian was a poor black man, so local authorities found it relatively easily to dragoon him for the murder of a young white woman, despite the…
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Mobile, AL. — Listening to some campaign commercials, I’m swept into the 2013 horror film, “The Purge” — which portrays a terrifying evening of violent crime. Here in Trump country, politicians running for posts from sheriff to attorney general are pledging to bring an end to what the president has infamously called “American carnage.” Steve…
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History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. — Maya Angelou On July 5, 1933, Elizabeth Lawrence, a black school teacher, was lynched in Jefferson County (Birmingham), Alabama. A mob of white men dragged her from her home, burning the house down as they left,…
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With all the mayhem and malfeasance emanating from the Trump administration, it’s hard to keep up with the myriad policies and practices that are doing harm to the nation. That’s especially true at the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems determined to turn back the clock to a meaner, harsher era —…
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We watched, so the Virginia shooter got just what he wanted. We were horrified, sickened, stricken, but still we watched as a deranged gunman fired several shots and murdered two young journalists on live television, wounding their interview subject, as well. Alison Parker, 24, and her cameraman, Adam Ward, 27, were conducting a news report…
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