Black Community

Out of the post-Reconstruction rubble, Col. Allen Allensworth, a retired African American army chaplain, pieced together a dream. In 1908, Allensworth, a prominent Los Angeles resident, along with several other enterprising African American men (and their families), started a settlement 40 miles north of Bakersfield, in central California's http://www. co.tulare.ca.us/about/allensworth.

At the end of it all, Daphna Ziman and the Rev. Eric Lee were joking about the good cry they had together, pledging to work together to help children, and hugging each other goodbye Thursday. The two, who clenched hands at one point during the conversation at Ziman's Beverly Hills home, had clearly gotten over the controversy that erupted around a speech Lee made at a banquet April 4.

I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together -- unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren....

Tulare County supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to plans for a controversial dairy operation adjacent to Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, the site of a historic all-black community founded 99 years ago. However, the approval came amid signs of progress in a possible deal between the property's owner and critics of his plan for the site about 150 miles north of Los Angeles.

A LATINO FAMILY is moving onto my block. This is an unremarkable event, and in the predominantly African American part of town where I live, certainly not an unprecedented one. It's a natural part of the ebb and flow of all neighborhoods; turnover, like death and taxes, is certain. One of the great scenes of Americana is a van or a truck parked by the curb or driveway, ramp extended, as the rest of the block gathers on the sidewalk to watch the installment of new neighbors and their belongings.

After making the rounds of news reporters, the garrulous black man stepped before a phalanx of television cameras lining the sidewalk outside the courthouse in Long Beach. "Everybody ready?" he asked, hands clasped, as if in prayer. "I'm Najee Ali. N-A-J-E-E. A-L-I. Director of Project Islamic Hope."

Illinois state Sen. Rickey Hendon served eight years alongside Barack Obama in the state Capitol and plans to endorse him today when Obama launches a bid for the White House. But that does not mean Hendon has set aside the long-simmering doubts that he and other black leaders hold about a man who could become the first African American to occupy the Oval Office. "I can endorse someone now and change my mind next week," Democrat Hendon said from Springfield, Ill., where U.S. Sen. Obama (D-Ill.

Although there may be truth in Jonah Goldberg's view that the Congressional Black Caucus doesn't always take positions that square with the majority opinion of the black community (Opinion, March 30), I would remind Goldberg that being the "conscience of the Congress" means not always making the most popular choices but making the morally appropriate ones. If he examined the positions of white members of the House Republican Caucus, he would find that although a majority of their constituents oppose continuing the current course in Iraq, congressional Republicans continue to support it. Likewise, the Medicare drug benefit plan that they enacted.

It seemed for a while that Hurricane Katrina might give St. Augustine parish -- home to one of the nation's oldest African American Catholic churches -- a reprieve. After years of seeing its attendance drop, the numbers climbed as people pulled together in churches that were spared devastation.

It's hard to miss a 6-foot-2 white man in a black church -- especially a man with a shoulder-length mane of white hair. But on a Sunday at West Angeles Church of God in Christ, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. was doing more than just getting noticed. The criminal defense attorney was causing a bit of a stir. "Let me shake this hand!" said churchgoer Wayne Boylan, reaching out to him. "Thank you for helping Michael!" gushed Valata Williams as she approached.