Michelle Obama

The New York Times has published a fascinating research into the family tree of Michelle Obama, who, the story says, “grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family…

Michael Sandel and Diane Rehm

On this morning’s Diane Rehm Show, one of her guests was Michael J. Sandel, an author and professor of government at Harvard University. He’s written a book called “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?” To…

Katrina Browne

How would you feel if you learned that your family had come to prominence, that its members had been blessed with wealth, opportunity and privilege — and that it happened because your family was the largest slave-trading family in…

The U.S. Senate support of a resolution offering a formal apology for slavery has not gone far enough for some members of the Congressional Black Caucus (see previous post), but the NAACP is happy with the action.

The head of the…

The U.S. Senate today adopted a resolution offering a formal apology for slavery and the era of “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws that followed, CQ Politics reports.

The resolution doesn’t call for reparations. In fact, it includes a disclaimer stating that the measure…

So much about Barack Obama’s candidacy has hearkened back to Abraham Lincoln. It started with the announcement of his candidacy in Springfield, Ill. It continued through to his Philly-to-D.C. train ride this weekend. So the New York Times is musing…