In 1976, at the age of 26, I began a syndicated public affairs series “Along The Color Line”, focusing on political issues and public events that had special significance to African Americans and to other people of color internationally.  For more than 25 years, the column was distributed regularly free-of-charge to over 400 newspapers worldwide.  Medical problems forced the temporary halt to the distribution of “Along The Color Line”.  I am pleased to announce the return of my public affairs series, beginning this August, 2005.  The series is still absolutely without charge to all black-owned, black-oriented, and independent/progressive publications and internet websites for distribution worldwide.  You are completely free to reproduce any one column, or all of them, that you receive on a monthly basis.  “Along The Color Line” is a public educational and information service dedicated to fostering political dialogue and discussion, inspired by the great tradition for political event columns written by W. E. B. Du Bois nearly a century ago.

I am once again proud to make “Along The Color Line” available to your readers.

 “Without struggle, there can be no progress.”
—Dr. Manning Marable, Columbia University


April 2008
• The Economics of War: From King to Obama
• Racializing Obama Part I / Part II
March 2008
• Incarceration vs. Education: Reproducing Racism and Poverty in America
• Losing Ground? Recent Trends in Black Higher Education
January 2008
• Barack Obama’s Problem – And Ours
• It’s the Economy, Stupid
November 2007
• South Africa in Crisis:  Part I / Part II

April 2006
• INHERITANCE, WEALTH AND RACE
• SOCIAL INSECURITY: THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AHEAD
February 2006
• The Most Dangerous Black Professor in America
• Erasing Dr. King's Real Legacy

January 2006
• Dismantling Justice
• NEW ORLEANS RECONSIDERED: RACE OR CLASS?:  Part I / Part II

December 2005
• AMISTAD: PRESERVING BLACK HISTORY
• THE EXECUTION OF TOOKIE WILLIAMS
October 2005
• Black Suffering and White Power
• Katrina's Unnatural Disaster:  Part I / Part II

August 2005
• Black Reparations:  The Case of Brown University
• Black Reparations:  The Cases of Wachovia Bank and Eastman Kodak
• Lynching:  An American Tradition without Apologies
• Remembering Nat Turner
September 2004
• "Defeat Bush or Die”
• “Lunch with History:  Judge Robert Carter”
August 2004
• "A Jobless Future"
• "The End of the American Dream"
• "Freedom Summer's 40th Anniversary"
• "Global Apartheid and America’s New Racial Domain"
May 2004
• "How Our Children Learn Racism"
• "The Problem with Black Leadership"
• "White America's Redacted Memory"
April 2004
• "The New Racial Domain"
• "The Death of Affirmative Action" PART I / PART II
April 2003
• "Return to Mississippi"
• "Reparations — The New Civil Rights Agenda"
March 2003
•  "Only the Ball Was White: Blacks and Baseball”
PART I / PART II
February 2003
• "The Economic Crisis Ahead"
• "Who Owns Black Art?"
January 2003
• “G.W. Bush: Affirmative Action Baby”
• “Two Nations: The Economics of Inequality”
• “Put King Back into the King Holiday”
December 2002
• "Minority but not Black"
• "Trent Lott's Mistake"
• “Election 2002: Why the Democrats Lost”
November 2002
• “The Cincinnati Boycott” PART I / PART II
October 2002
• "In Defense of Black Reparations” PART I / PART II
• "The Death of White Racism” PART I / PART II
September 2002
• "Bush’s Blacks: Race Traitors?” PART I / PART II
• "Reparations, Black Consciousness, and the Black Freedom Struggle”
August 2002
• "The NAACP’s 93rd Convention: An Assessment”
PART I / PART II
July 2002
• "Blacks in Higher Education: An Endangered Species?"
• "In Defense of Cornel West: The Role of Black Intellectuals”

For a copy of any column that is not available on this website,
please contact my office at mm247@columbia.edu.