As predicted by city officials, low numbers at the voting polls across the city were confirmed by the amount of voters trickling in to make their choice on the ballot.    

At King High School on the city’s east side, a smattering of people were outside rallying for their candidates and encouraging passersby to vote.  One of them, city employee Ellen Conyers, was optimistic.

“I can say that most voters have been opinionated and called their neighbors to come out and vote,” she said.  “The people want a change.  Several...

Last week I found myself defending and explaining a string of endorsements the Michigan Chronicle made for the Aug. 4 primary.

Aside from being peppered for our support of some incumbents on the Detroit City Council, one particular endorsement created the biggest firestorm.

Our support of Raphael Johnson, a 34- year-old Detroiter who at the age of 17 went to prison in a murder case for 11 years, had some listeners on the Mildred Gaddis show on WCHB AM 1200 riled up.

Some of the callers on the show that I periodically frequent, asked in rhetorical deftness, how...

Detroit attorney Myzell Sowell, a nationally renowned attorney credited with helping to launch the careers of a generation of powerful lawyers and judges in Michigan. He was 84.

In the late 1960s, Sowell, already a noted Detroit attorney, began turning the newly unveiled Legal Aid and Defender Association into an incubator for stellar legal careers and an epicenter of community activism.

He died just days before he was to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Bar Association, the nation’s leading organization of African-American lawyers, which is holding...

When so-called “reality TV” first became prominent, yours truly was among those thinking (and hoping) that it was just a fad, although a massively popular one.

Talk about being wrong and having unfulfilled
hopes.

Today the market is glutted with reality television shows. Those, along with crime shows and the Jerry Springer type of talk shows, are being presented
excessively and, directly or indirectly, many of them contribute to the “dumbing
down” of society and the growing incivility.

A large part of the viewing
audience...

One of the most memorable developments in the 1970s was a plethora of “Black” movies. It happened quite unexpectedly, but once the floodgates were opened, there was no stopping them.

Among other things, the popularity of the movies made it clear that Black moviegoers — not so much the upper class — were hungry to see Black faces on the big screen.

It’s wasn’t that Black movies had not been made before, but they were few and far between.

It should be noted, too, that the “Black movie explosion” happened at a time when...