http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/index.html http://media.miamiherald.com/images/logos/rss_sitelogo.gif http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/index.html 140 25 News, sports and entertainment from MiamiHerald.com en-us Copyright 2008 MiamiHerald.com Leonard Pitts Jr. 60 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:11:01 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's PubSys miamifeedback@miamiherald.com http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/614324.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/614324.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:31 EDT This is how John Davis became a slave: He was walking one evening from the train depot in Goodwater, Ala., when a white man appeared in the road. ''Nigger,'' he demanded, ``have you got any money?'' http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/527356.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/527356.html Fri, 30 May 2008 11:57 EDT SUNFLOWER, Miss. -- Joaquin Burse wants to go to Harvard and be a laser tech. You might think that's a lofty goal. Truth is, you have no idea how lofty it is. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/448204.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/448204.html Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:07 EDT PITTSBURGH -- This is a What Works column. Those of you who are regulars will recognize that as my series spotlighting programs that have proven effective in tackling poverty, miseducation, fatherlessness and other problems that blight the prospects of African-American kids. In the year and change that the series has been underway, it has taken me around the country, from Harlem to Austin to Atlanta. Today, it brings me to this city of bridges and rivers. More specifically, it brings me to the Crossroads... http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/459975.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/459975.html Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:01 EST 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. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/237926.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/237926.html Sun, 16 Sep 2007 03:01 EDT ATLANTA -- The consensus was that Tom Cousins was either crooked or crazy. The former opinion was held by residents of the gritty East Lake Meadows housing project who didn't believe him when he said he wanted to tear down East Lake and erect a mixed-income apartment complex in its place. The latter opinion was held by observers who did. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/234438.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/234438.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 03:01 EDT ATLANTA -- Hell was a housing project. East Lake Meadows was built of bricks and ringed by barbed wire and called Little Vietnam because it was a war zone. ''Do you know where you are?'' a horrified cop once demanded of a lost driver with out-of-state plates. An official of the Carter administration once accompanied the president on a visit and found himself terrified. And he had Secret Service protection. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/308148.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/308148.html Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:00 EDT '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. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/307841.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/307841.html Sun, 10 Jun 2007 03:00 EDT 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. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/308145.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/308145.html Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:00 EDT http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/63585.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/63585.html Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:12 EST AUSTIN, Texas -- Mr. Harris has a way of putting things. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/63586.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/what-works/story/63586.html Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:14 EST One month and 1,400 e-mails later, here is a progress report on What Works. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/609920.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/609920.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT This will be the last What Works column. I reserve the right to occasionally report on any program I run across that shows results in saving the lives and futures of African-American kids. But this is the last in the series I started 19 months ago to spotlight such programs. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/606109.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/606109.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT Satire is tricky. It makes its point by exaggerating wildly with a straight face. In inflating a thing beyond all common sense or propriety, it seeks to render inconsistencies and hypocrisies glaringly apparent. What makes satire difficult is that sometimes, people don't realize they are being had. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/598795.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/598795.html Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:56 EDT 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. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/594477.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/594477.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT PORTLAND, Ore. -- Success breeds separation. That's the thing no one tells you, the thing sometimes you don't realize, the thing that might make a child turn from his own potential. Success is like a pyramid, broad at the bottom, but narrow at the summit; the higher you go, the fewer people go with you. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/590492.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/590492.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:01 EDT I have no idea when reverence fled these shores. That it did, however, seems obvious. What else can you conclude when the service of military men becomes a routine object of mockery and misinformation in the name of politics? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you John McCain: traitor. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/586100.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/586100.html Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT In the 17 months that Barack Obama have been pursuing the presidency, the senator has faced a crude and shameless campaign from conservative pundits, GOP functionaries and assorted ignoramuses in the peanut gallery to prove him a secret Muslim. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/582007.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/582007.html Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT So all we know for sure is that something happened in Gloucester, Mass. What that something was depends on whom you believe. Last week on its website, Time magazine quoted Gloucester High Principal Dr. Joseph Sullivan as saying that, of 17 girls who became pregnant during the school year, nearly half did so as part of a ''pact'' to have and raise their babies together. Sue Todd, president of a group that runs a day-care at the school, told Time she had heard a similar story from a social worker. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/577759.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/577759.html Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT Someone is going to think this column is racist. That person -- he or she will be white -- will be unable to point to so much as a semicolon that suggests I believe in the native superiority of my, or any other, race. Rather, the accusation will be based in the fact that the column discusses race, period. It's a phenomenon I've seen many times, most recently when a friend of mine told me that a friend of hers regards me as racist because I write about race. To which I gave my standard answer: If... http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/574088.html http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/574088.html Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:01 EDT And then somebody brought a chicken into the newsroom. A sign affixed to the bird -- a statue of a rooster in full crow -- said: ``Brought in by a Santeria priest . . . to help save our jobs. Make an offering.''