Chat live with Leonard Pitts Jr. from Noon-1 p.m. Wednesdays, or submit questions ahead of time.
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
Last week, I went to Philadelphia to observe a program called YouthBuild U.S.A. This was for What Works, my series of columns about solutions to the problems that plague black kids.At one point, I found myself sitting down over pizza with a room full of YouthBuild students. Most of what we discussed didn't make that initial column, but I found it valuable nonetheless.
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.
BALTIMORE -- Consider the neighborhood.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Mr. Harris has a way of putting things.
One month and 1,400 e-mails later, here is a progress report on What Works.
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.
You and I are about to embark on something new.
Leonard Pitts Jr., a mainstay as a news and features columnist at The Herald for 13 years, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary Monday.
The coroner says he only called it homicide because he had no choice.
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.
I guess I touched a nerve.
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.
So what is it you have against gay marriage?
Hi, God, it's me, Pat Robertson. How's everything in Heaven? Clear skies, warm sun and a gentle breeze, eh? Well, it's been raining cats and dogs here in Virginia. But I guess You already knew that, didn't You?
Ronald Smith lost an index finger and part of one thumb. Emily Lyons lost an eye. Fallon Stubbs lost her mother. The losses came not because of anything they did, nor anything they said. It was just happenstance. Just the result of being in the wrong place when bombs exploded.
Forgive me, but I'm about to speak heresy.
If you ever saw that picture of Emmett Till, you never forgot it.
In 2001 Pitts was awarded the American Society of Newspaper Editors' top award for his commentary. In 2000 he was honored by The Society of Professional Journalists with its Fellow of the Society award, one of the highest honors the Ohio-based organization gives professional journalists. In 1993 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism.
It was late on the afternoon of Sept. 11. The towers were down, the firefighters in retreat. That's when one of them, Dan McWilliams, saw the flag. An American flag, attached to a broken pole, lying among the debris in the nearby marina. He picked it up and started back toward Ground Zero.
RSS|
My Yahoo|
Newsletters|
Mobile|
Alerts|
Twitter
Terms of Service| Privacy Policy| About our ads| Copyright| About The Miami Herald| About the McClatchy Company| Corrections| Contact Us| Advertise| Work for Us
Partners: El Nuevo Herald| Newspaper in Education| WLRN | Miami Herald News| CBS4 WFOR-TV| More
Copyright 2012 Miami Herald Media Co. All rights reserved
Previous
