Here’s a story about the difficulty of talking about race and our racial past. An ESPN “Outside the Lines” installment for Black History Month, to be aired on Sunday night, looks at a white man and a black man in…

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…

Nearly 50 years ago, Elwin Wilson, a young white Southerner, led an attack on a group of civil rights “freedom riders” in the whites-only waiting room of a South Carolina bus station. A week ago, in a meeting arranged with…

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…

Monday — 06:00 am (DC time)

This mural in "China Town" of Obama with Dr. King in the background caught the attention of quite a few tourists

After a few hours of sleep, I’m getting ready to go out and brave…

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay faced allegations of racial motivation when his demotion of  Sherman George, the city’s first black fire chief, led to George’s resignation amid debate over whether tests for department promotions were racially biased.

St. Louis County executive…

One of the earliest reactions to this new blog came from within the Post-Dispatch newsroom, with concern and surprise expressed by several staff members that the moderators are all either white or black. The group leading this discussion does not,…