McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon.

“Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration,” they wrote in Friday’s letter, adding they hoped that Obama would be eager to “right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison.”

The White House had no immediate comment.

In Sunday’s New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd suggested that racism played a role in Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You Lie” outburst during President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress last week.

In her column, Dowd said:

Surrounded by middle-aged white…

The Obama administration has decided, according to The Associated Press, to participate in planning for the World Conference Against Racism despite concerns the meeting will be used as a platform by Arab nations and others to criticize Israel.

The U.S. will…

Claude Steele

One of my favorite radio programs is RadioLab. The show usually addresses scientific topics in a very approachable and entertaining way. The show’s most recent podcast addressed something that’s been called “The Obama Effect.”

The idea, basically, is that African-American…

Some readers, responding to my recent post about Irene J. Smith, referred to the St. Louis mayoral candidate as “militant” or “racist.” Since starting here at the Post-Dispatch, many readers have put me in that same category, which I find…

Image Design: Tor Myhren, for Grey Advertising. Source: LATimes .com “Let the Issues be the issue” / Nov. 4, 2008

It’s intriguing how so many people on this blog (and all around the country, really) are so obsessed with the fact…

As expected, the day started off at a frantic pace. The over-capacity crowds riding the Metro rails were sucked into even larger, sea-like crowds once they exited the stations.

I changed routes after seeing the unending lines outside specified, color-coded gates.…

Maybe because it’s the capital of the United States or that there’s so much history tied to this district. The site was, after all, chosen by George Washington himself.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve only seen Washington, DC from publications, the…

Before leaving my motel for DC., I met Marguerite Dupont Gamble, who traveled all the way from Florida to witness Obama’s swearing in. Ms.  Gamble is a long-time member of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) established in the late 1950s.

Here…

Black and Latino students are educated in U.S. schools that are increasingly segregated, said a report Wednesday that undercuts optimism about race in America surrounding the presidency of Barack Obama.

The report by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California…