It's past time to set the record straight on Lifeline, the essential service to low-income families that has recently suffered fallacious attacks and been mislabeled as the "Obama Phone" program.

Recently, political talking heads have falsely and irresponsibly excoriated the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline telephone program as a...

Our nation's communications networks are currently undergoing a dramatic transformation. It's called the IP transition (for Internet Protocol), and this modernization effort will speed the availability of 21st century digital services and applications for all Americans. Access to reliable and ultra-fast networks will enable consumers and businesses to seamlessly connect...

The modern era of civil rights in the media began in 1951, two years after I was born. It was in that year that the NAACP asked the FCC to hold a hearing on Amos and Andy. In that same year, Langston Hughes wrote these words:

What happens to a...

At its core, digital literacy refers to the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information using new information and communications technology. Possessing digital literacy skills entails a working knowledge of current advanced technologies and, more importantly, a substantive understanding of how broadband-enabled tools can be used to enhance...

We are currently facing the greatest threat to first class citizenship, competitiveness, economic growth, and moral fiber as a nation since segregation. A deep digital divide - a chasm between those who have and have not yet adopted broadband - exists at a critical point in our nation's history where...

Susan Crawford is a heroine of mine. Not only is she a distinguished telecom policy scholar, she's one of the very few who has focused on the digital divide.

Her recent New York Times commentary "The New Digital Divide" accurately points out that the nation is at risk...

As the nation prepares to dedicate Dr. Martin Luther King's National Memorial, let's give ourselves this thought experiment: "What would Dr. King be doing today if he were armed with the social media and telecommunications technology we take for granted?"

As the leading social engineer of the 20th Century, Dr....

The aftershocks of the massive economic earthquake that was the Great Recession continue to reverberate, sometimes violently, across the United States. The unemployment rate, especially within communities of color, remains too high. Job creation is stagnant. We're currently facing yet another potential economic calamity -- national default if we fail...

Since its founding 25 years ago, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) has been a vocal opponent of consolidation in the media and telecommunications industries. A transaction may be compelling to shareholders or have an attractive economic rationale, but transactions that shrink a sector usually come at the expense...

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a modest two-page Enforcement Advisory to remind broadcasters that they must certify in broadcast applications that their advertising contracts do not discriminate. The Advisory also designated a senior member of the FCC's Media Bureau to serve as a compliance officer...

Do you buy food? How would you like it if the Department of Agriculture required you to buy bean curd and steak, cheese wiz and caviar, as well as liquor and green tea so you wouldn't be denied the "full grocery experience?"

Do you drive? How would you like it...

For months, during the ongoing net neutrality debate, the positions of the national civil rights organizations have been largely distorted. As the Federal Communications Commission inches closer to a solution on this issue, attacks on the ability of civil rights leaders to make autonomous decisions persist. Such attacks, however, are...

"I do believe there is hope for civility. I do believe there is hope for progress and that's because I believe in the resiliency of a nation that has bounced back from much worse than what it is going through right now."

Those were President Obama's words in the wake...

Great leaders are not often born...they're made. In the case of our leaders within the civil rights community, they often endure trial by fire, face striking parallels between right and wrong, and confront the need to make decisions about equality, fairness, and justice from an early age. Such was the...

At what point does persistence turn into malfeasance? That is the question we should be asking of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent federal agency that has spent much of the last year considering various regulatory schemes for broadband Internet access.

Proposed "network neutrality" rules put forward by...