Blacks, Jews, and Farrakhan  

It is troubling that so many listen to Farrakhan. If no one listens his becomes a voice in the wilderness. But listening transforms monologue into relationship. Farrakhan’s audiences are predominantly black, but blacks are not his only listeners. Jews listen, …



Malcolm X as Icon  

It is a strange time, indeed, when a dead man is brought back from the grave to inspire the living. As far as we know, such an act of resurrection costs the dead nothing. It might even be a source …



Some Tickets Are Better  

With the publication of The Price of the Ticket, James Baldwin presents the work on which he wants to be judged and by which he would like to be remembered. The volume contains fifty-one essays, twenty-five of them previously uncollected. …



You Can’t Go Home Again  

It was an exercise in ’60s nostalgia. “Our time has come!” he shouted from the pulpits of black churches and the campaign stump. “Our time has come!” It was a cry reminiscent of the “Freedom Now” chant of the early civil rights movement, one …