This month we mark the beginning of spring and the beginning of the fourth year of the war in Iraq. The president, vice president and assorted generals are out peddling success. But on the ground, sectarian violence is spreading. The Iraqi police are less a national force than separate sectarian forces with divided loyalties.

The parents sat quietly listening as the third-grade teacher explained in detail the coursework our children would be assigned and how it complied with state and federal regulations. A mother raised her hand and asked what the teacher was doing outside of the government curriculum to reach the children.

Back in 1919, in the chaotic aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, President Woodrow Wilson's administration sought to suppress radicals and progressives here at home.

Government agents harassed W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP's journal, The Crisis.

"We African American Women seldom do just what we want to do, but always do what we have to do. I am grateful to have been in a time and place where I could be part of what was needed."

On Aug. 6, 1945 the United States killed over 100,000 men, women and children at Hiroshima, Japan with the newly invented atomic bomb. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

 EDITORIAL'Kicker' Needs a Face ChangeFew issues in government get under…

Every year the Sons of Confederate Veterans use the North Carolina statehouse to celebrate their annual confederate flag day ceremony. It has become more common in recent years for some White Southerners to openly wax nostalgic for the days when their ancestors fought and died to preserve slavery.

The door to higher education for African Americans and other students of color is closing, and so will America's long-term economic future. Despite the clear decision by the U.S Supreme Court in the University of Michigan case upholding the principle of affirmative action, some of America's leading colleges and universities are already opening their purse strings to White students using minority scholarship dollars.

Like the rest of President Bush's proposals in his most recent State of the Union address, his central mandate for education in the United States is to stay the course — with a couple of new biscuits thrown in.
Bush wants to "lead the world in human talent and creativity," a noble goal and a pioneering tradition we established and maintained — until recently. Though Americans deem improving education as the single greatest domestic issue we face, our leadership in science and technology innovation is in decline.

Toward the end of Claude Allen's abortive Senate judicial confirmation hearing in 2003, Utah Sen. Orin Hatch tossed a puffball question at him.
Hatch asked what Allen's grandfather — who was the first in his family born out of slavery — would say to him about his pending judgeship. Allen, visibly moved by the question, said his grandfather would tell him to give back to those who had helped him.