NEWS COLUMNIST

• Leonard Pitts Jr.: We'll go forward from this moment

  This column by Leonard Pitts Jr. was published in The Miami Herald on Sept. 12, 2001, and received an extraordinary response from readers worldwide.

• DETROIT MAYOR

  Being black doesn't mean innocence

  If Kwame Kilpatrick were white, don't you think he'd have been thrown out of office a long time ago? Heck, he'd be out of jail by now and shopping his memoirs.

• LEONARD PITTS JR. | COLUMNIST

  Gov. Palin and Sen. Clinton 'could hardly be less alike'

  You know what bugs me most about Sarah Palin? It isn't that John McCain spent weeks claiming Barack Obama was unready to lead, then chose her as his running mate -- and potential leader of the free world -- a woman who until six years ago was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population: 5,469.

• Separating obscenity from art

  You can't blame Karen Fletcher for deciding not to fight. Had she lost, she faced the possibility of five years in prison. Under the plea agreement she accepted in early August, she got six months of house arrest, five years on probation and a $1,000 fine. But if the agreement allows Fletcher, of Donora, Penn., to avoid the more onerous punishment, it also allows us to avoid what surely would have been a violent collision between morality and the Constitution.
• 

  BARACK OBAMA

  Vision of a better America becoming a reality

  He spoke of the promise before he spoke of the dream. In the first part of the momentous speech he gave at the Lincoln Memorial, the part school children don't memorize and pundits never quote, Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded a watching world that in writing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the founders were ``signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

• No Leonard Pitts Jr. chat today

  Leonard Pitts Jr. won't be online today. His chat will take place as usual next week, and he will answer your questions then. We're sorry for the inconvenience.

• Leave education to the principals, teachers, parents

  As I wandered about looking lost, I chanced upon a teacher who volunteered to lead me where I needed to be. When I told her why I was here -- a series of columns on What Works to change the culture of dysfunction that entraps too many African-American kids -- she told me I had come to the right place: KIPP Gaston College Preparatory and KIPP Pride, two charter schools serving 600 kids here in farm country.

• Role models help rescue troubled teens

  'I sure hope Timothy doesn't come to school today." It was when that thought came to mind, says Frederica Wilson, surveying the faces at the conference table in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools headquarters, that she knew she had a problem.

• They are their own fixer-uppers

  They say the house was a mess. There were holes in the floor. The walls were pulling apart. There were no windows, doors or fixtures. It was filled with trash. The stairs were unsafe. There were dead cats in the basement.

• Academy makes the improbable possible for teens

• XY-Zone gets A's for helping at-risk kids

  AUSTIN, Texas -- Mr. Harris has a way of putting things.

• Nothing replaces family support for black kids

  One month and 1,400 e-mails later, here is a progress report on What Works.

• Harlem program forms a circle of success for kids

  The late-day sky was spitting snow. Inside the classroom, tiny black children, younger than kindergarten age, sat in a circle, legs folded "crisscross applesauce" beneath them. Soon, they would begin their French lesson, but first there was a ritual chant.

• Let's talk about what works for black children

  You and I are about to embark on something new.

• Herald columnist Pitts wins Pulitzer for commentary

  Leonard Pitts Jr., a mainstay as a news and features columnist at The Herald for 13 years, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary Monday.

• Dec. 8, 2003: Cincinnati case not a tough call: Man killed self

  The coroner says he only called it homicide because he had no choice.

• Oct. 27, 2003: 'Hard-core rap' is cashing in on stereotypes

  I guess I'm obligated to be offended by this new board game. After all, Al Sharpton says I should. And not just Rev. Al, either. Many other people - including NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and radio host Tom Joyner - have pronounced themselves offended by the game. Not that I blame them. It's called Ghettopoly, a take-off on Parker Bros. venerable Monopoly. Except that this game isn't about moving a car or a top hat around the board, buying properties and landing on Boardwalk after somebody has put up a hotel.

• Oct. 20, 2003: To irate readers: Race has always benefited whites

  I guess I touched a nerve.

• Sept. 29, 2003: Faithful often give religion a bad name

  This is how you stone a woman to death. You bury her up to her neck. Then you heave stones at her head. One imagines her face slowly obliterated, her skull repeatedly broken. One imagines the process takes a long time.

• Aug. 4, 2003: Gays may be hope for marriage

  So what is it you have against gay marriage?

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