Rev. Jesse Jackson

Terror haunts the streets of our cities. Since 2008, more than 530 young people have been killed in Chicago. Almost four-fifths of these killings were in 22 African-American and Latino community areas on the city's South and Southwest sides.

Each year, across the country, about 7,000...

Chicago is girding for the opening of the NATO Summit on May 20. The ministers and heads of state will be greeted by a rich array of protests, marches, events and counter-summits. Security is already tight near the conference center, and tensions are building.

Why protest a meeting of U.S....

The defeat of French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Sunday's French elections provides a clear lesson to America. So does the fall of the conservative Dutch government, the rebuke of the British conservative government in local elections, the defeat of the establishment parties in Greece and the turmoil in Spain. Europeans...

Interest rates on subsidized government student loans are slated to double to 6.8 percent in July. That would add up to $1,000 to the burden of students dependent on loans to help pay for their education.

Not surprisingly, President Barack Obama has called on Congress to...

Trayvon Martin was shot to death in Sanford, Fla. He was there visiting his father while suspended from school. He was suspended last month after school officials claimed to have found marijuana "residue" in his book bag. No actual contraband was found; no arrest or citations were issued...

We mourn Trayvon Martin, the young African American who, armed only with candy and a soft drink, was shot dead for the offense of "walking while black."

George Zimmerman, the man who shot him, has not been arrested, apparently protected by Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which "authorizes" anyone to...

Is democracy a luxury good in America, discarded when the going gets rough?

Apparently Michigan's Gov. Rick Snyder thinks so.

In Michigan, Detroit and other cities have hit the wall. The Great Recession has devastated city finances. Everyone agrees tough steps are needed.

Snyder's response is what Canadian author and...

Even while we see jobs coming back, the tsunami created by the Great Recession is hitting cities and counties with full force. Suffolk County, one of the largest New York counties, has declared a financial emergency. Stockton, Calif., a city of 300,000, is on the verge...

In Selma, Ala., on Sunday, I joined thousands of citizens marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, marking the 47th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the 1965 march and police riot that helped spark the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

The march was not a memory to the past, but a...

This Sunday, nearly 40 million people are likely to tune in to see who captures an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards ceremonies. Winning the award can add millions to a film's box office and supercharge the career of an actor, director, screenwriter or editor. According to the Academy's 2009-10...

Republicans on the campaign trail denounce Obama's health care reforms as a virtual threat to the Republic. It's "socialized medicine," "a job killer," "a government takeover of health care." All the Republican candidates for president promise to repeal it, and Republican legislators are virtually united in trying to do so....

Last week, Mitt Romney created a firestorm for saying that "I'm not concerned about the very poor." Romney later explained that he "misspoke," and that he'd said something "similar to that, but quite acceptable, for a long time."

The real problem isn't that it misstates Romney's...

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer insults the president with a finger-wagging tarmac rant in Arizona. As a result, sales of her book soar.

American presidents have always been fair game for public criticism. But isn't it past time that we challenge the campaign of insult, racial slur and utter disrespect that...

The toxic message that drove Newt Gingrich to victory in South Carolina will drive our nation apart rather than bring it together. And it will spell defeat for him -- and for Republicans if they choose to go that way.

Gingrich's campaign limped into South Carolina on life support. His...

The Republican presidential primary in South Carolina captures the news, but too little attention has been paid to the state itself. South Carolina reflects the triumph of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement: Its schools are desegregated; its public facilities open to all, its economy benefits from...

New Hampshire's primary grabs headlines today, but if history is any guide, the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary will play a far greater role in determining the Republican winner.

Of that state's population, 28 percent are African American, and could be a major factor in the primary. But...

About 120,000 voters will make national headlines with the choices they make in the Iowa caucuses. Those who turn up will be disproportionately white, conservative, affluent and old. Conservative evangelicals will turn out in significant numbers. Their influence has been exercised before they even go to the caucuses, for every...

This Christmas, times continue to be hard for many. And that -- amid all the presents, parties and holiday gaiety -- is the real story of this mass we celebrate on the birth of Christ.

As I've reminded throughout the years, the real story isn't about a holiday; it is...

Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich appeals to working Americans by slandering the poor. Gingrich recently denounced child labor laws as "truly stupid," suggesting that schools should fire janitors and hire students under the age of 16 to clean the place.

When critics said he would send America back to the age...

I suffer from a harsh case of gout that requires constant treatment. Suddenly this year, I discovered that the generic drug I was using that cost about 3 cents a pill had been banned and replaced by a proprietary drug -- a brand name -- that cost $5 a pill....