MiamiHerald.com

NEWS COLUMNIST

Leonard Pitts Jr. won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2004. He is the author of the novel, Before I Forget. His column runs every Sunday and Wednesday. Forward From This Moment, a collection of his columns, was released in 2009.

On Sept. 11, 2001, he wrote a column on the terrorist attacks that received a huge response from readers who deluged him with more than 26,000 e-mails. It was posted on the Internet, chain-letter style. Read the column and others on the topic of September 11.

You can also read Pitts' series, What Works?, a series of columns about programs anywhere in the country that show results in improving the lives of black children.

Leonard also wrote the 2008 series I Am A Man, commemorating the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination.

Email Leonard at lpitts@MiamiHerald.com or visit his website at www.leonardpittsjr.com

Leonard Pitts: Race is the stupidest idea in history

By Leonard Pitts

On New Year’s Day, it will be 150 years since Abraham Lincoln set black people free from slavery.
In My Opinion

Pitts: Confronting America’s unholy gun love

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

On the day after the recent massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., police in Newport Beach, Calif., took a man into custody for allegedly firing more than 50 rounds from a semi-automatic handgun in the parking lot of a shopping mall. He aimed into the air and no one was hit, though one person was hurt slightly while running away. Police say 42-year-old Marcos Gurrola was destitute and frustrated with his circumstances. Firing dozens of rounds at the sky was his way of venting.
In My Opinion

Pitts: Good pol should never say never

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

A few words to ponder as we sail toward the fiscal cliff. Those words would be: “That was then, this is now.”
In My Opinion

Gun control? Maybe these kids are onto something

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Young people are not exactly renowned for their judgment.
In My Opinion

Another case of 'black blindness'?

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Call it black blindness.
In My Opinion

What truly matters during the season

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Bing Crosby would be appalled.
In My Opinion

Don’t lower the bar on education standards

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

I take this one personally. Let me tell you why.
In My Opinion

After profound grief, a nation’s profound gratitude for Thanksgiving

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

He had lost a son many years before, the boy barely more than a toddler when he died. Now another son was dead and grief sat on him like the shawl that draped his shoulders as he rattled around the big, cold house. His wife was emotionally troubled and spent money they did not have. His subordinates were insubordinate, convinced he was out of his depth and that they could do a better job. And his country had split along a ragged seam of geography and race, boys from Maine and Vermont fighting it out against boys from Georgia and Tennessee, their bodies left broken, bloated, bloody and fly-swarmed, dead by the profligate thousands.
GOP flame-throwers estranged from reality after election

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

America, you are an idiot.
In My Opinion

The miracle of Malala Yousafzai against Taliban in Pakistan

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”
In My Opinion

GOP has become its own worst enemy

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

”How ya like me now?” – Barack Obama
In My Opinion

With Obama’s win, voters said No to ‘politics of pitchforks’

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Thank goodness that’s over.
In My Opinion

A lament after four years of no reconciliation

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Well, I sure got that one wrong.
In My Opinion

A one-size-fits-all morality fails

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

“And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen. “
In My Opinion

Lessons from McGovern, Armstrong on integrity

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

One guy was among the greatest losers in the history of politics, the other, one of the biggest winners in all of sports.
In My Opinion

Closing the binders on pay inequity

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

About those “binders full of women . . .”
In My Opinion

Speaking truth to fundamentalism

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” — Martin Luther King Jr. (quoting William Cullen Bryant)
Commentary

The poor aren’t part of the narrative for either political party

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Charlotte, N.C. George Farmer does not want to be here when the Democrats come to town. “Personally,” he says, “that’s the time I want to be so far away from here. I’m almost at a place where that has nothing to do with me.”
In my opinion

Don’t blame the Bible

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Sometimes, people hide inside the Bible.
In my opinion

The new Jim Crow alive and thriving

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

I have something for you.