Columnist
38 recent articles by Michael Nelson:
In her book, legal writer Emily Bazelon tells the story about District Attorney Amy Weirich and her prosecution of Noura Jackson, whose mother was killed in their East Memphis home. Jackson was tried and convicted of second-degree murder; in 2017, her conviction was overturned.
Frank Sinatra spent most of his life not liking us much. The South during the early and middle years of Sinatra’s career as the preeminent vocalist of his era — the 1940s through the 1960s — was a hotbed of racial bigotry, one of the things he hated most.
Al Gore somehow managed to be dealt a straight flush — a booming economy, a world at peace, and a popular administration in which he served as vice president for eight years — and play it into a losing hand.
Tennessee should enfranchise ex-cons and regulate voter registration drives.
Aware that the clock was ticking toward the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing this July, Basil Hero decided in 2017 to turn his lifelong fascination with space travel into a book.
The parole board was blown away when a woman who had spent 25 years behind bars, and who was a member of the great books group at West Tennessee State Penitentiary, quoted Herodotus in answer to a question about how she now defined success.
Democratic presidential contenders will be all over this region in the months leading up to the Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi primaries. None of them has a prayer of winning electoral votes, but all three states will be sending delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
The horrors of the battle fought at Shiloh April 6-7, 1862, made it clear that the weaponry of war had far outstripped the Napoleonic-era tactics taught at West Point.
A bland marker erected near the midpoint of an almost century-long celebration of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis now has a new companion marker. It describes the grotesque nature of Forrest's "business enterprise."
The combination of global peace, domestic prosperity and political moderation kept Clinton’s second-term job approval rating in the 60 percent-plus range even as his personal approval rating went down. Voters were right on both counts.
Because the legalization movement has made marijuana sound healthy, more people are using it. Daily intake nearly tripled from about 3 million users in 2005 to more than 8 million in 2017.
Trump is going to be on the ballot in 2020. By the time an impeachment process got under way, voters would already be casting ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire. Let the American people take care of removing Trump if that’s what they want.
Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were young, politically ambitious, and determined to advance their careers by coming to Memphis for the Young Republican National Convention in 1977.
Ernest Withers, the famous Memphis photographer, was also Ernest Withers the informant, a man whose life illustrates Martin Luther King's description of man's dual nature.
E Pluribus unum is our nation’s traditional motto. Conservatives are drawn to the unum – the unity – in that motto. Liberals often prefer the pluribus – the diversity. Wouldn’t it be great if all our flags allowed us to put aside the pluribus among us and experience the unum?
If history is any guide, the new Memphis Express professional football franchise will do fine. The big question concerns the league, the new eight-team Alliance of American Football.
Over the past two centuries, presidents almost always have become more effective and less influential during their first two years in office. President Donald Trump has defied these patterns.
Legalizing sports betting could ultimately mean more buses, more drivers, more frequent service, more routes and more shelters for waiting passengers in Memphis and Shelby County.
Michael Nelson offers his take on sports betting in Tennessee; the Mississippi governor's race; and why Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn face some interesting times in Washington.
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