African American

Langston Hughes, the famed Harlem Renaissance poet, in what may be one of his most oft-remembered poems, asked this question: What happens to a dream deferred? That question, more than any other, may be more pertinent now than ever, as Friday's August jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that African Americans, and young people in particular, are fast falling behind the rest of the pack.

Have all the reports on the imminent demise of historically black colleges and universities as we know them been greatly over-exaggerated? They are if John Silvanus Wilson Jr., Ed.D, has anything to say about it. Wilson, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, was appointed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the Obama administration in 2009 to delve into the seemingly myriad list of sustainability challenges facing HBCUs, from funding woes to graduation rates.

Harlem Children’s Zone is a haven in the middle of the city. Operating since 1970, they have many new plans ahead. "We broke ground on a new school/community center building to be opened in 2012 in the middle of the St. Nicholas Houses (a public housing development)," says HCZ spokesperson Marty Lipp.

A catastrophic flood emptied New Orleans of much of its black youth. Powerful social forces may be doing a similar thing to places like Harlem and Chicago's South Side.

Congressional backers of a pardon for Jack Johnson, the world's first black heavyweight champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago for his romantic relationships with white women, say his prosecution was racially motivated. Johnson made the same argument 90 years ago while in prison, records at the National Archives show.

Oklahoma civil rights icon Clara Luper, who led sit-ins at drug store lunch counters in Oklahoma, has died at age 88.

The AAMLO, home to rare books and memorabilia documenting black life in the Bay Area since California was still part of Mexico, may close its doors.

Clarice Taylor, the actress and comedian best known for playing grandmothers on "The Cosby Show" and "Sesame Street," has died at the age of 93.

Long before Public Enemy urged the need to "Fight the Power" or N.W.A. offered a crude rebuke of the police, Gil-Scott Heron was articulating the rage and the disillusionment of the black masses through song and spoken word.

Offering a lift to a flood beleaguered city, President Barack Obama hailed the transformation of a once struggling but venerable Memphis high school Monday, telling its graduates, "You inspire me, that's why I'm here."