{Thanks, The Baltimore Sun}

Mayor Sheila Dixon, her attorneys and prosecutors all survived day one of jury selection for Dixon’s long awaited criminal trial. Months have passed since Dixon was originally indicted, and some had questioned whether we’d ever get to the trial phase. Now it’s up to the attorneys and the judge to pick 12 jurors who can judge the mayor impartially. Judge Dennis Sweeney called day one of jury selection successful.

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{thanks, AP}

Mia, aka BmoreFab of thefabempire.com, reports Baltimoreans were well-represented at last weekend’s Congressional Black Caucus: Annual Legislative Conference.

During the four day event in D.C., African-American members of Congress are joined by policymakers, business leaders, athletes, entertainers, emerging leaders and members of the media for policy forums, discussions, networking events, exhibits and more.

Congressman Elijah Cummings, who represents Md.’s 7th congressional district, was among the lawmakers who participated in the conference, Cummings is a past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

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Gwen Ifill

{Thanks, AP}

Award-winning journalist Gwen Ifill and respected law professor Sherrilynn Ifill are teaming up to kick off a new lecture series at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library next week.

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Sen. Thomas V. Mike Miller (left) and Gov. Martin O’Malley {mediocre photo illustration; original image, Baltimore Sun}

Ah, the death penalty discussion.  Nothing whips Annapolis into a frenzy like beating a dead horse.  Thanks to what The Baltimore Sun is calling “an unusual procedural move” by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, the bill calling for a repeal of Maryland’s death penalty will most likely make it to the Senate floor, whether a committee votes for it or not.

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Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

{Thanks, AP}

During campaign 2008 as the nation prepared for the vice presidential debate between now Vice President Joe Biden, then U.S. Senator Joe Biden, and Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska it was revealed that the debate moderator Gwen Ifill would be writing a book titled, “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama”.

Ifill drew criticism for writing the book because of the perception that she’d therefore have a bias toward Obama and his running mate Joe Biden.

Ifill said then that the book would focus on a group of politicians not limited to Obama, but including other African-American politicians who had risen to power locally and nationally in cities and states across America.

If the book had written before the scandal involving former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick then his name would be among those who are celebrated as the new guard of political leaders. The fact is Kwame’s star has faded.

A few weeks ago I had a brief conversation with Johns Hopkins University political science professor Lester K. Spence who offered an interesting observation that Kilpatrick’s actions, and in some people’s eyes that of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon represented a failure by the majority black populations in some of America’s biggest cities to hold their political leaders accountable.

I don’t know how I feel about the good professor’s theory.

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Obama’s Victory {ABC News}

I write this piece on the eve of my beautiful grandmother’s birthday. My grandmother, who tomorrow-God Willing- will turn 77 years young, still walks the streets of Harlem on her daily outings as vigorously as she did the day she migrated to the Big Apple from her hometown of Goldsboro, North Carolina more that 50 years ago. I thought of her as I watched Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. accept his victory as the 44th President of these United Sates of America last night around the hour of 11:00.  Addressing this nation with his new world order at task, he spoke of a woman named Ann Nixon Cooper; a 106 year old former homemaker and socialite from Atlanta who for the first time in her life was able to cast her vote for an African-American nominee. For more than a century on this earth, this extraordinary woman has witnessed America evolve before her eyes. I wonder if Mrs. Nixon Cooper or my grandmother ever thought, in their wildest dreams, that they would see a black man being prepared to take the helm of this country. I think of my maternal grandmother who passed way in 2004, the same year that Barack Obama was just making his mark in the national political arena by giving maybe the most important speech of his career at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. I think of my mother, as all she could say was “Oh My Goodness,” in between her sobs of joy as she watched the nation erupt in jubilee on her television. I think of my father, who was an award-winning journalist at the Village Voice during the 1980’s, when young black people were being killed at an alarming rate by a bigoted NYPD and the devastating crack epidemic. I think of my grandfather, who fell limp across his bed crying when he received the news that Malcolm X was killed at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.

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There’s a reason the Baltimore market led the nation in ratings for the presidential debates. People here are passionate about politics.

I drove around this morning from Howard County to Baltimore County and into Baltimore City. Along the way, I stopped at various polling places — talking to voters as they came out from casting their ballot. The overwhelming majority said they support Barack Obama.

I pulled out my video camera while talking with many of these voters. But, there are two conversations in particular that really stick with me. They show that, for many people, a vote for Obama is also a vote for a major step forward in terms of race relations and civil rights.

You can find the resulting video below. Read the rest of this entry »

From today’s b, the paper

Seventy million Americans, part of Generation Y, have never taken a drink out of a separate water fountain.

They’ve never known a time when interracial relationships were illegal. They’ve only seen photos of lynchings.

For many, the only race riot they’ve ever seen has been on live TV, post-Rodney King verdict. And now a black man, Barack Obama, is a major-party nominee for the presidency.

But is Generation Y, or the Millennials, colorblind?
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