Columnist
Otis Sanford is professor emeritus of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis and political commentator for WATN-TV ABC24 News. Contact him at o.sanford@memphis.edu.
There are 260 articles by Otis Sanford :
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.
Law enforcement is not helpless in trying to curb the lawlessness. But it will take cooperation from all of us who want safer streets and highways.
Otis Sanford and Mark White have a friendly, but spirited, showdown over their polar opposite views about how to talk to Tennessee school children about race and racism.
Criticize Critical Race Theory if you must. But Republicans cannot legislate away the lasting impact of slavery and racism on American history.
An incident at Health Sciences Park goes beyond one opportunistic racist hothead with more Confederate flags than he has sense. It’s emblematic of the growing white resentment to America’s reckoning with race.
Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill May 24 without comment. Because what could he really say that makes sense? His first and apparently only attempt to explain the rationale for the law would have been fine for a White Citizens Council meeting in the 1960s.
Ida B. Wells’ words and actions put to shame efforts by state legislatures today – including ours in Tennessee – to ban the teaching of systemic racism and its detrimental impact on people of color.
Within the span of about three days, the House and Senate imposed their Caucasian-centered, conservative will on what can and cannot by taught in schools about racism’s sordid history and harmful impact.
The judge deserves to be remembered as one of the most consequential public figures in Memphis during the second half of the 20th century, says Otis Sanford.
CJ Davis will draw on her 28 years in the Atlanta Police Department, where she rose to commander of the Strategies and Special Projects Division. Isn’t that what Memphis needs, new strategies for fighting crime and making MPD more a part of the community?
Derek Chauvin’s conviction should continue the reckoning on race that started after Floyd’s murder shocked the world 11 months ago. A reckoning we have longed for since the night Thomas Moss and his companions were taken out and lynched in Memphis.
When it comes to a diverse pool of candidates, the list of finalists for the police director’s job is a homerun. Three are from inside the department. Three are women and five are African American. But this search comes with plenty of challenges.
As I have watched the evidence meticulously unfold against Chauvin, I have also thought about the highly-respected late Memphis attorney S. Shepherd Tate and the role he played in making televised trials possible.
It’s time for the city to cancel its five-year, $33.1 million contract with Waste Pro.
An independent investigation by attorney Brian Faughnan flatly accuses Ford of deliberately deceiving his fellow commissioners by failing to disclose to them his obvious conflict of interest. To call Faughnan’s report damning is an understatement.
Voter suppression is very much alive and well in 2021. The cruel violence that once accompanied it has been replaced by underhanded legislative tactics at various statehouses controlled by Republicans.
The vaccine distribution debacle on Mayor Lee Harris’ watch will figure prominently in the GOP campaign to retake his office, the party’s Shelby County executive director says.
Among the misguided proposals presented at the Tennessee Legislature, none would have as much negative impact on the majority of Tennesseans as the bill introduced last week to abolish early voting in the state.
In this fight, Black people and white people are on the same side. So are local politicians who don’t always agree on matters of public policy.
But when it comes to serving up political red meat – in both coded and straightforward language – to far right conservatives, Lee has perfected that nicely.
Lee encouraged Black Memphians to support Democrat Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But when emerging Black leaders in Memphis pleaded for Lee to officially abandon the Republican Party and become a Democrat, he graciously declined.