Columnist
Otis Sanford holds the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis. Contact him at 901-678-3669 or at o.sanford@memphis.edu. Follow him on Twitter @otissanford.
There are 157 articles by Otis Sanford :
The iconic actor played roles in the 1950s and 60s that depicted Black men as strong, educated and caring. But also ones willing to stare down racism with a steely-eyed resolve.
“It’s easy to draw comparisons between what happened on ‘Bloody Sunday’ at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 and the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. ... But there is one major difference between these two infamously historic events.”
For more than a decade, a poll conducted twice a year by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt has been a reliable barometer of the mood of Tennesseans about the issues affecting the state and the politicians we elect to state and federal offices.
Horton was a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and Howard University Law School in Washington. After an illustrious career in Memphis, the federal judiciary would be Horton’s final and most impactful calling.
News outlets continue to lend credence to Donald Trump’s flirtation with seeking a second term in 2024.
Lang Wiseman, 50, said his greatest satisfaction in his dual role was his work making the planned Ford truck assembly plant at the Megasite of West Tennessee in Haywood County a reality.
“The truth is, farm life historically for African Americans in the South was one of hardship and despair.”
“It’s easy for (Mississippi Gov. Tate) Reeves and others of his ilk to continually recite Dr. King’s words about content of character and pretend that racism no longer exists.”
Quiet as it’s kept, some parents want their children to learn the accurate history of America and the role that race, gender, ethnicity and privilege played in that history.
‘It’s too bad Republicans in the state legislature don’t read the election commission web site. They never got the memo about nonpartisanship.’
Tennessee Republicans have been railing against businesses, local governments and schools for doing everything in their power to control the spread of a virus that has infected 1.2 million Tennesseans and led to more than 16,000 needless deaths.
Otis Sanford: “...while Powell never sought the office himself, he had tremendous influence with voters during tough presidential election years.”
Worth Morgan formally announced Monday, Oct. 11, as a Republican candidate for Shelby County mayor.
The man just brought a Ford assembly plant to the state with more jobs than anyone in this region could have imagined. How can his potential challengers, Republican or Democrat, top that?
Shelby may still be the largest of Tennessee’s 95 counties, but it long ago lost the influence and cachet that it once enjoyed statewide.
After the most horrific attack on American soil in our lifetime, we stood unified against a common enemy. And, despite our differences today, I believe we can do so again.
So yes, COVID has laid bare our social inequities and made our divisiveness seem irreparable. It is not.
And now that the Food and Drug Administration has moved the Pfizer vaccine from emergency-use authorization to full approval, I expect to see more employers, public and private, requiring the vaccine as a condition of employment.
How did a seemingly rational, successful, God-fearing businessman – albeit with no previous political or government experience – so easily become a wavering tool of the far right without exhibiting so much as a shred of credible leadership?
Without question, this is another senseless shooting death that could have been avoided in a number of ways.
It remains unclear how far teachers can go in discussing how racial injustice in the past impacts our society today. Republican lawmakers say that discussion is off limits. I say it is necessary.
Otis Sanford says the dispute between Mayor Lee Harris and County Commissioner Mark Billingsley seems to portend the year ahead for politics in Shelby County.
Forrest believed that the worth of Black people was only as laborers, nothing more.
Otis Sanford: ‘I am calling on all Memphians to honor Wells this week and beyond by committing to help forge a more peaceful city. Deadly gun violence does not have to be just the way it is in the big city.’
Thompson is not taking on this assignment as a neutral fact-finder. He does not have to be. The House is not a court of law and committee members are not unbiased jurors.