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 257 articles by Otis Sanford :
U.S. Attorney Michael Dunavant voiced support when the attorney general criticized communities that fail to show proper respect for law officers. Were they also concerned when Trump attacked FBI leaders?
Blighted property on Union at B.B. King Boulevard became AutoZone Park. A new hotel occupies the site of the bus station. Now Union Row has the potential to remake Downtown Memphis.
It wasn’t just the insulting language that cost Berlin Boyd his council seat. Many voters were upset that he tended to favor big business over the needs of neighborhoods.
Rage and guns are a bad combination. In Memphis last weekend, eight people were shot, one of them killed, in altercations at a strip club, a convenience store and outside a Beale Street honky-tonk. On Monday, one discount store customer shot another four times.
The landmark lawsuit accusing the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department of spying on citizens returns to court 40 years later.
On the night Mississippi voters are deciding between two degrees of conservatism, Shelby County Democrats will gather in Germantown to ask the question, “How Liberal Are You?”
Trump’s use of the word “lynching” in his tweet was designed to change the conversation from damaging testimony that is shifting public opinion toward the conclusion that he is unfit for the presidency.
Under ordinary circumstances, the fatal shooting in Fort Worth and the police residency issue in Memphis would have nothing in common. But these are not ordinary times where police and community relations are concerned.
This former president doesn’t build walls to keep people out. He builds houses to put people in. Jimmy Carter's demeanor, tone and work ethic stand in start contrast to the current occupant of the White House.
On Oct. 3, 2019, 28 years to the day of his stunning mayoral victory, Dr. Willie W. Herenton gathered again with supporters on election night in Memphis. He was again the underdog, but this time the outcome was humbling.
Joe Ford and his son Justin Ford aren't running for office in the Oct. 3 election, but each man is putting out a list of endorsements.
Tami Sawyer’s already longshot quest for mayor has imploded. And the wounds were all self-inflicted.
The lesser known candidates for City Court clerk may not say it publicly, but there is resentment that Myron Lowery and Joe Brown hope voters choose familiarity over qualifications.
Where was the racial diversity in the room that would have, and should have, said we cannot publish this cover?
Willie Herenton still trails Mayor Jim Strickland in the mayor’s internal polls. A televised debate would be Herenton’s chance to convince skeptical voters that he’s still got it.
An unassuming, 87-year-old, recently retired black sanitation worker provides a powerful and authentic endorsement of Jim Strickland.
Investigators knew that the owners acted illegally by hiring undocumented workers. If they wanted to make this crackdown an example of equal justice, they would have pulled owners out of their offices the same day they snatched immigrant workers away from their frightened children.
Because of our toxic political climate, the two biggest motivators that drive voters to the polls are anger and excitement. The city election is nonpartisan and falls between the 2018 midterm and next year’s presidential contest, which may leave Memphis voters complacent.
Poverty, crime and implicit bias have a devastating effect on black male students. Researchers found the educational achievement gap between black and white students amounted to "the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.”
Trump’s slogan from the beginning was code for marginalizing people of color as different and inferior, while assuring white Americans who have an innate fear and distrust of multiculturalism that they would have a president who was always on their side.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, first elected in 2006, plans to seek reelection in 2020 and 2022, but it's no secret that more than a few Democrats are positioning themselves to run for the seat the moment he decides to step aside.
African-Americans were not about to just show up at all-white public schools and trust that they would be accepted. It required the power of the federal courts – and in some instances the muscle of the federal government – to force change.
As former Memphis mayors Dick Hackett and A C Wharton can attest, the top city job requires political skill in the face of bad news or calamity.
District Attorney John Champion is not serving as a P.R. spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service or any other law enforcement agency. He is speaking out for the Hernando shooting victim, whose ordeal has mostly gotten lost amid the violent unrest, the finger pointing and vigils that occurred after Brandon Webber was killed.
The gravity of violent crime continues to loom over Memphis like an ominous storm cloud that stubbornly refuses to break up and move on.